The Captives Episode Two
by PuddlejumperOZ
Summary: Are the Ori realy dead? Stayed tuned as we continue the ongoing saga of the Captives, brought to you by Fertile Imagination Inc.
1. Chapter 1

Stargate SG-1 ....The Captives Part Two. From Major- General Jack O'Neill's file #671778d-99b

**New, old kids on the Block**

Sarah Connolly paced up and down outside O'Neill's office in the Pentagon. Jack had returned that morning and requested her to be there. Captain Jennifer Hailey brought Connolly her forth cup of coffee. 'God military coffee is awful.' She almost said aloud. "Will there be anything else ma'am." The young captain asked. "No captain, thank-you." Sarah remembered Hailey from early trials and work-ups on the Victory. The Air Force captain was a good officer and a fine pilot, what the hell was she doing working as Jack's personal aide. 'Christ there were too many like her, wasting their time on non combat duties, when the fleet was so short handed. She would have to talk to Jack about that.'

O'Neill calls out from within his office. "Captain Connolly, would you come in please." She enters the room and Jack bids her to close the door. "Have a seat Sarah, please."

"Thank-you sir." She pulls out the chair and lowers herself into it.

"Enjoy your leave, eh?" He asks.

Sarah grimaced. "Two hours sir, not exactly two weeks. But at least it was good to see New Zealand again, albeit briefly." She smiled a little.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Something very important came up. Hank Landry wasn't all too happy about being pulled away either. At least that old fart Bra'tac got to stay. By the way how's he doing on his own down there anyway.?"

"He says he doesn't want to leave. His words were, and I quote..._If there really are gods somewhere out there, this is the place they made for man to abide.._frankly sir I would have to agree with him. He fishes almost every day, caught a lovely trout whilst I was there and then released it. But you sir..." She paused and blushed a little.

"What's that?"

Sarah sat up straight and recomposed herself. "I think it has more to do with the Maori housekeeper the NZ government provided for us. She is a jolly woman, laughs a lot and I don't think Master Bra'tac has ever felt so happy or content."

"A woman you say? Well I'll be, that old b..." Jack looked definitely pleased. "By the way, how does the surgery look?" He pointed to his forehead.

"Fine sir, they did an excellent job, there's hardly any scarring at all. Bra'tac was more than happy about it sir, he said it was the last vestige on him of something he despised so much. But sir, I don't think you brought me back here to discuss your old friend."

"No Captain you're right. I'll get straight to the point. We've left an Ori warship out there, unguarded and unmanned, apart from a small contingent of soldiers and three hundred prisoners. The IOA wants that ship brought home if at all possible. If not we're to destroy it. You have a new mission Sarah, if you're willing to take it, I'm not making it an order ok."

Sarah stood, a little rattled. "Sir?" She looked at him squarely, she knew what he was going to say. It was difficult to hide her expression.

"You'll fly out in one hour as Commander of that Ori ship. Apparently Admiral MacGregor is still there assessing the situation on the other ship as well. Render him any aid if he needs it. That'll be all Captain." He seemed a bit distracted for a moment.

Sarah saluted him and paused. "Ah sir, the Dreadnaught is still a way from serviceable, how am I getting back out there?"

Jack blinked as if awoken from something. "Didn't I tell you that part, I'm sure I did. Never mind, Captain Hailey..." He hollered. "Get your fat butt in here."

Sarah looked in surprise at her friend and then suppressed a giggle.

Jennifer was leaning against the doorpost, eyeing a army NCO in full dress not far away, when she heard the General call her. "Yes sir!" She answered smartly, smiled briefly at the corporal, straightened her jacket and entered. She went and stood next to Connolly.

"At ease Hailey. Captain Connolly I want you to meet your new XO. This is Air Force captain Jennifer Hailey. Hailey, this is your new commander US Navy Captain Sarah Lee Connolly."

. "Pleased to meet you again ma'am." They shook hands. Jennifer, seemed pleased with herself, that cheeky grin always seemed to surface.

"You two know each other then?" Jack said with an almost Teal'c eyebrow raising.

"Oh yes, the captain here was on-board Victory for her trials." Sarah replied cheerfully, she liked Hailey, even only knowing the young woman briefly, they'll get on well she thought.

"Yeah, she was wasn't she. That's good then. Alright next order of business before you leave." Jack reached into his drawer and removed a small blue box. He walked around and stood in front of Hailey and opened the box to reveal a pair of Major's acorns. The young woman drew in her breath sharply.

"You've earned it Hailey, a couple of years early, but I'm the boss so...." He didn't finish and just handed one of the pins to Sarah, and they each went through the formality of removing Hailey's captain's pins and replacing them with the acorns. Jack recited the oath and Jennifer gave hers.

"Now you guys can go. Oh and by the way Captain, the Dreadnaught will be in good hands. Colonel Davis is taking her command. You can brief him at Area 51 where you'll be picking up your new ride...wanna tell her now Major, or keep it a surprise." Jack beamed like a Father Christmas in a department store.

. "I couldn't wait that long sir." She turned to face Sarah. "It's the first 'E' model 307 ma'am." Now Hailey was truly grinning wide.

"Apart from those being loaded on the Dreadnaught of course. But this will be the first one actually being mission proven Captain." Jack smiled with satisfaction. He loved doing this...retirement to hell.

Sarah smiled radiantly, her day just kept on getting better and better. Screw the vacation, this was life to her.

Tense moments passed on the Ori ship, before anyone could say anything. Finally Vala as usual broke the silence.

"So that's it then. You're going to murder over six billion people, just like that. Why? I can't understand your logic, don't you creeps need humans to worship you, to make you all the more powerful...six billion, that's probably more than in the whole Ori galaxy, and you..."

Daniel grabbed her arm. "Vala!" He had never seen her like this, she was livid. "He's not listening."

The air crackled as the mysterious man spoke. "Oh indeed I am Daniel Jackson." He said sarcastically. "Still no need for you all to sacrifice yourselves for your world. You can leave if you wish, I'll not try to stop you. You can watch the destruction of all you hold dear from the safety of your ships. I'd make sure you make that a goodly distance though, it's going to be a wonderful galactic light show I promise you that." He laughed with a sickening throaty sound.

Sam was having none of it. "Listen, whoever you are. We've defeated your kind before, we'll do it again...we promise 'you' that."

"You best hurry then Colonel, you have approximately two of your hours, before I reach my goal beneath the crust of this ice moon. When I do that, the power left behind by the Ancients you so foolishly revere, will be all I need to finish this task. By the way Colonel, I do have a name, it is Thalas."

SG1 as a whole looked at one another, shocked, puzzled and confused, but no fear. Well perhaps a little. Cam, Teal'c and Vala were all for just blowing the ship up, but Sam and Daniel convinced them, it would serve no purpose. And besides they didn't think it would be as easy as that. This Thalas would definitely be able to prevent them from doing so, or it would help to serve his purpose. Wisely they fell back to link up with the Marines and formulate some plan. Sam radioed the 401 to appraise Mac of the situation.

"Frankly sir I really don't know what we can do."

Cam chips in. "For once sir, Sam's right. This guy's got us over a barrel."

. "Not necessarily. Have the Marines fall back to the power generator, I'll beam you lot up. Don't worry Sam, we'll figure something out." The Admiral replied.

Daniel looked at his friend. "Hey Sam, we've been in tighter situations than this...haven't we?"

"Perhaps Daniel Jackson, but I believe this present situation maybe rather unique." Teal'c, implied with his typical calm manner.

"Yeah well, at least with Adria..."Sam started to say.

Mac beamed them up, she then finished the last bit as they appeared in the rear section of the 401. "...we had some idea of what we were dealing with." They were so used to getting beamed about now, they took it in their stride. Removing their Hazmat suits, they continued discussing the events on the Ori ship until the last of them, Daniel, stood there in his standard flight suit.

The members of SG1 were reasonably accustomed to surprises of various degrees. During their collective experiences, especially for Sam and Mitchell, it had been senior officers that had provided a fair bulk of said surprises (especially Jack O'Neill). Though none of them, even Vala, who was often referred to as being a bit unpredictable, could have envisioned the scene in the cockpit. Empty Dorito's packets were on the deck, cans of Coke sitting on the instrument panel (a small CO2 extinguisher lay nearby, which had obviously been used to quick cool the drink). The Admiral and Jar'el jamming away on dual gaming joysticks, controlling a computer game. SG1 just stood there starring at the picture before them, until Sam moved forward and Mac cried out to his young companion. "Oh Jar'el, that's gonna leave a mark!" And the two of them burst into laughter.

"Sir! What's going on." Sam almost bellowed in his ear.

"Ah Sam, hey guys!" He cheerfully acknowledged the team. "Jar'el and I were just passing the time."

"Playing a computer game sir?" Daniel enquired.

"Training software, here have a look." He picked up the empty DVD box and tossed it over. Cam caught it and turned it over, reading the title on the cover.

"VBS2, hey sir, this is way cool. Have you got the new SEALS upgrades?" Cam asked, a boyish grin splitting his face.

"Cam! This is serious. With respect sir, I'm sorry but..." Sam looked at her uncle's face and couldn't help but smile. Men will never grow up, but in a way she was glad, it kept perspective in balance, because it allowed women like herself to keep things straight. She sighed. "Well sir at least you weren't watching por..."

"Oookay Sam, that's enough." He was the Admiral once more. "Fill me in please."

Sam obliged and told him everything, but when she told him the name of the being on the Ori ship, Mac turned completely in his seat and looked hard at her. He had no expression on his face, though Vala thought she saw some sought of recognition there. How could that be, the Admiral has not had any encounters with the Ori, the man hadn't exactly been on any real missions had he. Something was definitely wonko here.

"Right then, first order of business. We gotta get that bloke's bloody shield deactivated, at the same time negate the power he draws from subspace." Mac replied, cautiously, he had an angry look on his face.

Sam and Jonas both made a curious face at each other. Jonas had to ask. "Sir how do you know that?"

Mac sometimes felt he was talking to children, he just knew, but he couldn't say how. "I read the file inside and out on the priors and Adria. From that it was easy to figure out." He scratched at his scar again. "Once we do that, he has to die. No hesitation. If we give him any reaction time, he'll ascend and that's the last thing we need in this galaxy."

"How are we supposed to disconnect him from his source of power? Surely Adria would have warned them of our anti prior device. I don't think it'll work on him." Daniel asked.

"Of course it won't. So now we have to think outside of the box. Sam..." He turned to his niece. "Do we have any decoys on board?"

"Yes I believe the 401 carries about ten, why?"

"Mmm, not quite enough. Jar'el, does your Commander's ship carry any?"

"Why yes sir, there's a whole lot of them on our fighters, and we have two 401's on board as well."

"Good. Cam get on the blower, I want another dozen or so over here five minutes ago." Cam did as he was ordered. "Sam, we've got work to do. Show me the anti-prior device I know you've got with you."

"What's the plan sir."

Mac, looked quite hard around the eyes now. "Quite simple. We set off one giant sequenced EM charge around the ship, tuned on the same wavelength as the device. The only difference is, we tune the wavelength to be continuous, not oscillating. Once the decoys are set in place, the 401 will have to be out of range, so it won't be affected in any way. Lastly, I'll be on that ship to take care of this Thalas creep. I want all of you to stay with Jar'el, keep him company. Any questions?"

Vala had to speak, she was anxious, this brought back bad memories for her. "Why you sir? It's an awful risk. Even if we manage to disconnect this Ori, he's still a very powerful being. You may need more than just yourself."

"And is there not the question of the Ori ship falling to the moon's surface, once the EM charge is activated Admiral MacGregor?" Teal'c asked.

Jonas leaned over closer. "No that won't be a problem Teal'c. The power generator room is shielded independently from the rest of the ship. That's why EM hits have not been successful in previous battles with the Ori. But Admiral, there is something else you should know. When we were down there, I noticed that the energy field this Ori was using, looked very similar to delta sleep waves. I didn't think it would be useful but now..."

Sam wouldn't let him finish. "A sustained burst won't do it, we've got to time the decoys to go off in a rhythmic sequence that copies the delta waves. Sir we'll need more decoys. I'd say about..."

Jonas this time finished Sam's sentence. "Forty decoys all up sir."

"Right get it done. Better still, Jar'el you've got the ship. Take us over to your boss now, we'll reset the decoys there Sam, we'll need all hands to make this work." Sam had to reappraise her uncle, he was a professional when he had to be.

"What about the Marines sir?" Cam said casually.

"Apprise them of the situation Cam, but I want them on board to monitor that bastard. Now get us out'a here son." Mac said to the young Jaffa.

Jar'el complied. The holding bolts were severed and he powered away to rejoin Ishta's ship. One hour forty two minutes to go. As the Tornado's flight took it further away from the Ori warship, Mac caught a glimpse of the ring transporter activate once more. "Didn't you guys shut that thing down?" He asked them as he pointed to the white shaft.

"Yes we did Admiral. Mmm it appears to have a life of it's own then."Vala said.

Jonas replied. "Or more likely a life of that Ori's own."

Mac calls Captain Hampton on the radio. "Captain, this is Tornado charlie victor, can you detail a couple of your boys to check the ring transporter."

"You got it sir." Hampton, answered.

After about five minutes Corporal Singer radioed back. "Singer here sir. Though the transmitter circuits are cut, the damn thing still seems to be drawing power from somewhere. Could be through the deck itself. I don't know how we can shut that down sir."

Mac looks at the SG1 members, they all shake their heads. "Leave it son, fall back to Captain Hampton, tell him to move back to the main power generator deck and barricade the door beyond you."

. "Yes sir. On our way sir."

Daniel turned his head toward Sam and Mac, who were now standing side by side. "What do you think?"

"We go ahead with the plan. Sir?" Sam asked.

. "At the moment we'll call it plan 'A'. I don't think we've got a plan 'B' just yet."

With only twenty nine minutes remaining, the decoys were deployed around the Ori ship, a concentration of them nearer to the bridge area. Mac used several 307's to do that task, whilst he and SG1 flew in close proximity to the ship itself. Jar'el was still piloting the Tornado, this time though from the left side seat, Cam was in the co-pilots position keeping an eye on the young Jaffa. Mac stood talking to the others, well it was more of them talking to him. Trying their hardest to persuade him into taking someone else with him. In the end, he relented and agreed to have Sam accompany him down. When all was set, Cam beamed the both of them into to the passageway just to the rear of the Ori ship's bridge.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ancients Return**

Mac made sure he was behind Sam when they re-materialised on-board the warship, without even blinking, he placed his hand on Sam's shoulder, and pressed gently through the skin of the HAZAMAT suit. "Sorry about this Sam." He whispered and held her gently as she fell into a gentle sleep. "I'll be back for you." Mac looked down on his niece kindly. He turned and headed up the way, he radioed to Cam that he was in position and on his signal alone, the drones would be detonated. Not forgetting the Marines, who by now must be bored out of their skulls, he called them and ordered Captain Hampton to take his men and make a sweep of the lower and hangar decks. Mac checked his trusty Browning 9mm, he'd had it for twenty years now and he could never quite get accustomed to the feel of the modern pistols. Just the same, Rebecca his daughter made him carry a Glock as back-up; it was shoved down inside his waist belt. Trouble was, the gloves of the protective suit would make it difficult to handle the weapon. 'Well I'll figure that out later.' He moved on.

Coming around the corner of the passage way, he saw the edges of the Ori's force field, it was further out than the other's had described now. Mac figured as much. The more power these beings drew, the larger the field became, especially if you hit with a nuke! Well he certainly wasn't prepared for that...yet.

Now Mac wondered, these fields were supposed to deflect weapons fire, but would it stop him from simply walking through it? Only one way to find out. He took a deep breath and stepped through the visible shimmering wall. Like liquid quicksand, he felt as if he was sucked through it and then he was standing a metre or so behind this Thalas character. The Ori turned about to face this new guest into his domain.

"Ah, another visitor...strange though, your mind is blocked from me. But I don't need to know who you are, suffice to say you think you can stop me." _But there was something odd about this human, something familiar...what was it? _Thalas said bluntly.

Mac shook his head as if remembering something, then words came from his mouth involuntarily. It was his own voice that spoke, but it was as if someone else was controlling him. "Hello Thalas. I knew it was you from the other name you used. One who studies death indeed."

The Ori's eyes grew wide, that voice he knew from millennia ago, but that was impossible. No perhaps not. Agathon was a student of Moros, he was of the warrior caste, reborn again and again as a fighter. To die mortal, but always coming back like a plague. "It is you Agathon isn't it. The face is different, the voice is not. No matter old friend, you cannot defeat me as you are...especially now. Look at you, old, you have no powers and I have retained all mine. The price you paid I suppose, for not choosing the path, even as your mentors Moros and Ganos Lal had done so. No, you and your kind were just assassins for hire weren't you?"

"Tsk, tsk. Thalas, you went the wrong direction. You and those that followed you. I chose my road wisely. To be there when needed, nothing more. Now most of your evil kind are gone, but I sense you're not alone. How many came with you Thalas?"

"Do you think I would simply tell you that. I should crush you now, another few hundred years for you to be reborn...ha! There'll be nothing left here then, you fool!" He spat the words violently. "But I'll let you linger, it amuses me."

Mac whispered into his coms. "Now Cam!" On the signal, the drones exploded all about the ship. The detonations had been subdued by removing the main drive core and replacing it with a small grenade charge. Not enough to do any real damage, but enough to set off the propulsion reactor for a small fraction of time, that was all that was needed for produce the EM spike they required. On board the Ori ship, all that was heard was a continuous string of small explosions and then the field surrounding Thalas collapsed.

Before Thalas could react, Mac was upon him. He knew now who he was, that unseen voice was his own, in an instant as he closed with his adversary, all the other lives flashed before his eyes, until he was somehow looking down upon his own birth fifty eight years ago. Every man different, yet somehow the same. William MacGregor was an ancient, but of a different kind. One who was allowed to intervene in the affairs of lowers, through a loophole that Merlin and Morgan le Fay had devised. Soldiers of good, who would be reborn again and again as mortals, to fight the evil of the Ori and any others , wherever they might arise.

Wil held the Ori Thalas in an iron grip. His left arm locked around the other's neck, he took the rubber glove of his right hand in his teeth and tore at it; ripping it fiercely until it came free, he pulled the Browning pistol out and held it firmly against Thalas's temple. "How many Thalas. I know you retook human form, I know you would not have come alone, how many!" He yelled loudly in the man's ear.

Thalas could barely speak. But he knew if he bided his time, he would overcome the effects of whatever had disconnected him from the power. Chokingly he replied. "You'll never know Agathon. Only when they hunt you down might you..." Mac tightened his grip.

"You will not ascend you swineherd, not here not ever, but you will tell me now." Mac moved his pistol aside, aimed and pulled the trigger. Bang! The bullet passing through the Ori's knee. Thalas screamed in pain.

Sam shook her head, what was that. One moment she was standing there, the next she's laying on her side. She checked the atmosphere monitor on her wrist, afraid her suit may have been leaking. Nope, everything normal there, suits ok. On the other gauge that measured outside of the suit, she saw the toxic levels were dropping, rapidly. Then she heard the single shot, the man screaming and remembered the Admiral. She called him on the radio. Nothing. She called Hampton. "Captain, this is Carter, I'm in the main passage leading to the bridge, can you join me now please. "Right away ma'am." Came the reply.

She waited a few moments for the marines to arrive, they took longer than she would have liked so she removed the HAZMAT suit before they got there. Hampton come running toward her and saw the Colonel standing there, the orange clothing around her feet. She nodded to them. "It's ok captain, air's clean. They followed her lead and removed their own cumbersome rubber suits. "I heard a gunshot toward the bridge, come on!" In a tight group they ran to the forward section...bang! Another gunshot, followed by another scream which urged them faster.

Thalas reeled in pain, he tried to extricate himself from Mac's grip, to no avail. He was in a vice. He could feel his own strength failing, he hoped that Agathon would finish it quickly, but that hope was gone. He would not ascend, the effort required at that moment of death was too great and in his present state, he could not reach it. He was going to die here. The second shot to his other knee felt a hundred times worse than the first. One thought only passed through his mind, the warrior caste should have been dealt with from the beginning, he knew they would hunt down every last one of his kind. Well, he would die with honour, at least to his brethren, Agathon would find out nothing.

In holding the Ori as he did, somehow a bond or link was formed with his mind. Mac walked in a sea of hatred black and red as in the horrors of endless wars. Finally though he found what he was looking for, a meeting in the fiery abyss of Celestas, a vote for six hundred and fifty Ori, to retake human form and enter the Ancient galaxy on the next wave of ships to pass through the super gate, names and faces, many that Agathon knew when the Ancients and Ori were as one. Mac released his hold on Thalas and he fell to the floor clutching at both his bleeding legs. Mac just looked at him impassively. "Got cha now you swine!" A single shot rang out as the bullet exploded through the Ori's head. Sam and the marines came skidding to a halt as the robed man slumped, lifeless.

Sam came running over. "Unc...sir? What happened here, how did you?"

Agathon fled back into Mac's subconscious, well not really fled. It was himself after all, just another side to him. At least now he knew who was pulling the strings when he had those damn premonitions, and who it was that put Sam to sleep. He's gonna be doing a lot of talking to himself in the next few days, that's for sure. "The shield went down Sam, this fellow here just started hollerin' and going crazy, so I had to subdue him a little." God he hated lying, he'll have to make it up to her later. "Anyway, in the end I had to finish it, he was just too dangerous." There was no lie there.

"My god!" She exclaimed as she looked down at the dead Ori. "You don't play around do you sir. Did you at least learn anything, is it over?"

"Yes, I learned a bit Sam and, no it's not over unfortunately." There was a lot to do. "But least we've got another ship...no crew though, but another ship anyway. Sam, have Cam dock the 401 in this ship's hangar and tell him and the others to meet me in the bridge. Captain Hampton, Anything to report?"

"Yes and no sir. We checked all levels, no other signs of life, but there appears to be some kind of weapon in the ring room. It wasn't there before, but on our way to meet the colonel here, one of the boys spotted it. Doesn't seem to be active though."

"I better check it out sir." Sam said.

"Do that Sam. Take two of the marines with you. The rest of you with me we'll secure the bridge until Colonel Mitchell arrives. Oh and Sam..."

"Yes?"

"We better get the shields active again, just in case ok."

"Of course, I'll get Jonas on to it as soon as Cam gets here." With that she walked away, glancing once over her shoulder at her uncle. There was something not right about him, she could sense it.


	3. Chapter 3

**A New Player**

At another sphere in the galaxy, the Victory had picked up the two SG teams, along with a third, General Landry ordered to go with them. The ship was two minutes from exiting hyperspace in the vicinity of P9K 778, Dmitri sat uncomfortably in his seat. He worried about an ambush, it had been two days since the SG teams were there, anything could have happened since then. He turned to Major Chung.

"XO, I don't like the feel of this, drop out of hyperspace now, we'll re-coordinate our vector to bring us in behind the larger of the planet's three moons."

Chung. "Aye sir. And sir..."

Dmitri. "Yes?"

"Good plan sir. We still have a couple of systems not yet fully on line sir."

At two thousand kilometres behind the planets largest moon, well out of tracking range of any possible force on P9K 778, Victory's hyper window opened and the warship exited and came to a halt. Dmitri ordered coms to send a message to Ishta, to reroute to their present position.

Anne was just finishing a dressing on one of the ship's ground force officers. Major Heine Keller, he had taken a fall in one of the hangar decks, playing basketball. The big man sat emotionless as Anne tugged on the last of eight stitches in his left knee, he would not take a local for it, he said pain was good for the soul. She rolled his pants leg down and spoke to him.

"Major if I may speak candidly?"

"Please do doctor, ma'am." He said in his Bavarian accent, tinged with a little bit of Louisiana.

She looked up at him and smiled. "This would not have been so bad, if you were to lose a little weight. You probably might have just bounced right off that floor."

Keller laughed heartily. "Ah doctor, my wife has been trying to get me to lose weight for near on twenty years. My dad was a big man, my grandfather was and my brothers are. But ma'am, I will take it under advisement. Especially so I guess, as I get a little older, it mightn't hurt to shred a few kilo's." He laughed again.

Anne was reading his file. "Mmm, says here you're forty eight. Came up through the ranks, first in your native Germany, you immigrated and after citizenship, joined the US Army and got into the Delta Force. That's pretty good going don't you think Major?"

Keller wasn't quite sure of the angle the doctor was getting at, so he just answered casually. "Yeah, I guess so ma'am."

Anne eased his concern. "Don't worry Major, I just like to know my patients a little better than most doctors do. But I will say this in earnest, ease up a bit alright. I'm putting you on light duties for seven days, you should be fine then after I remove the stitches"

Now he found the angle, the Doc was the same as his mother, concerned, but not so as she would seem to be pushy. He liked her, he thought the rest of the crew would as well. Probably spend a lot of time finding stupid little reasons to visit the ship's doctor. He'll have to watch that in those, under his command. "Was there anything else ma'am."

"Ah yes there was Major. Is Captain Julie Henderson attached to one of your units now?" Anne inquired.

"Yes ma'am. I gave her delta squad earlier today. Is there a problem doctor?"

"No of course not. But there was something I needed to check with her. Could you send her up when you return to the combat squad rooms please."

Keller smiled. "She's not preg.."

"Major, please." She just glared at him, which only served to make him chuckle again. 'A very happy man that one.' Anne thought to herself as he left.

Lt. Adams called out to his commander. "Sir, we have a bearing on a ship heading for the planet at an extreme velocity sir. Speed point eight niner of light sir, unidentified sir, it's not Ori or anything else in our data base."

"Say again Lieutenant, speed?" Dmitri said.

"Zero point eight niner of light sir and we have nothing of it on our data base sir."

"Track it Adams."

"Ah sir, we'll lose it while we're behind this moon sir."

"I know that Lieutenant. Major Chung, order a cloaked 401 to follow that craft and see what it does, passive tracking only. But tell the pilot to keep out of any weapons range of anything else he sees. Do it now"

"Yes sir." The XO replied.

A sharp pinging alarm signalled a hail from one of Ishta's ships on station with the Victory. Commander Helak, Ishta's second came on screen. Dmitri addressed him. "Commander yes?"

"Colonel our sensors picked up a strange ship a moment ago."

"Yes Helak, we saw it. Do you have any idea of it's origins?"

"Myself no sir. But one of my crew who had once served with Camelus, said that a long time ago his former master tried to attack a world and was sorely beaten. No other Goa'uld ever dared challenge them again, it was a world they called the Aschen sir."

Not many of the crew had ever actually served directly with the SGC, those few that had, were not with that command very long. Yet a couple of older hands had. One of them a signals officer; had served eleven years with Stargate Command. He knew perfectly well who the Aschen were. He dropped the cup in his hand when he heard Helak's message, all the bridge crew turned to him to see the whitened visage of his face.

Keira Porter and her crew of three, arced around the largest moon of P9K 778, the 401 was cloaked and she checked her speed. In subspace there was no way in hell she could catch the mysterious ship. Her scanner operators tracked the vessel though, as it raced toward the planet. At around ten thousand kilometres from it's obvious target, it began to slow down to almost normal subspace speed. The Lieutenant banked, to take the 401 around the planet's circumference, the continents clearly coming into view as she rapidly got closer. Briefly as the other ship came around the planet ahead of her, they momentarily lost it's signal. The coast lines of the centre most continent, the one where the Stargate was located, became apparent and Keira spoke aloud. "Holy mother of God...will you look at that!"

The other three leaned forward to peer at the horizon beyond them. They were about a three hundred kilometres away from where they picked up the signal again. Lt. Porter brought the 401 to a virtual standstill. In front of them, hovering above the planet's surface, were no less than nine Ori warships in the distance, showing on their monitors. Whether they had detected the inbound craft, or the Tornado was unknown, for none of them made any obvious reaction. The crew of the 401 watched on screen, via the craft's long range camera, the events far beyond Mk 1 eyeball perception. Dwarfed by the larger vessels, the strange craft came at the Ori from an almost vertical approach from above. It fired from what appeared to be a top hull mounted weapon station, the blue beam of it's ordinance, passing totally through one ship, then slicing through the rear section of another. The Ori ships spread out, the 401's sensors detecting weapons being charged and shields active. For big ships, they were fast, but this ship, whatever it was, was much faster. Keira and her friends could just make out the definition of it. Probably three or four times the size of a 401, it was long and slender, she imagined like if someone had designed a space version of a fast attack naval craft. It was very dark, perhaps grey in colour.

On board the second damaged Ori ship, personnel ran every which way. Alarm klaxon's sounding on all decks. The warship began venting atmosphere through the breach in it's rear section. In moments it will begin to break up, the damage too severe. In their last breaths, some of the crew witnessed the first ship explode violently not far from them. A lot of them cursed, the Ori said they would be victorious, nothing could harm them.

Keira pointed out the window. "Are you guys seeing this?" She asked, as the raider peeled away from it's devastating attack, only to turn and face the remaining warships head on. Though they had spread far apart, it did not seem to matter to the insane captain of that little warship. The Ori fired at it, every time missing by a hair. His cannon opened up again, blasting a huge chunk out of another of the remaining seven. It wasn't a fatal blow, but it was out of the fight. Then to the amazement of the 401 crew, the attacker withdrew. He literally, rolled and turned from his last attack and sped off into the far blackness of space. The Ori ships regrouped, seemingly unsure perhaps as to their course of action, then their enemy was back as fast as it did the first time, blowing the previously crippled ship to pieces, then it broke off again.

The Ori commanders must have grew tired of the small ship's game. This time they pursued it until all ships were way beyond the Tornado's standard sensors. Sergeant Wiseman, the tactical operator, switched to long range, the ships were now far from the planet. Porter was tempted to do a surface scan, but hesitated. They all agreed to wait a bit longer. After almost ten minutes just sitting there, the skipper of the 401 determined they should carry out the survey below. The Lieutenant was about to alter their position when Wiseman called out. "Ah..er skipper, you might wanna hang off a bit. That ship just entered hyperspace and the Ori are turning back."

"Well we've got at least ten minutes...we can..." Keira started to say.

"Lieutenant, the scanner indicates that vessel is returning about...now." Wiseman replied.

A hyper-window opened just above the surface of the planet. Bursting through the event at speed, the grey ship drove downwards, entering the atmosphere near to the area of the Stargate. The 401 captain ascertained a small risk was worth getting more intel on this curious warship. Not to mention it's tactics.

Porter pushed the Tornado down hard and went into a large circling pattern around the area, still cloaked as it was, she hoped all, if any ground attention would be on the raider.

Warrant Officer Dubois on the second tactical displays, informed his skipper there appeared to be a large massing of what could be a military garrison, it was spread out quite far and if it were troops they were looking at, somewhere in the vicinity of two hundred thousand would be a conservative estimate.

The little warship was not far above the surface now, at sub sonic speed it's course taking past the Stargate toward the largest congregation of activity. The crew in the 401 observed with amazement, when the seemingly advanced craft, started dropping what appeared to be conventional ordinance. Perhaps cluster bombs and large general purpose bombs. This was weird, they were watching a vessel capable of blowing Ori ships up with ease, reverting to what most societies outside of Earth, would regard as primitive devices of war. The ship drew fire from below, it even suffered a couple of small hits, which showed it was not well shielded. It did not seem to matter though, the craft made another two passes, and scored some major hits, then broke off and headed straight for the Tornado.

Coming alongside the cloaked 401 and flying in formation with it, the raider opened a broadcast channel. "Cloaked ship, I know you're there, please identify yourself, I have my main battery aimed at you and I will fire if you don't uncloak immediately." The radio voice demanded.

Porter's crew looked across at the ship flying with it. Surprise was registered on all their faces. Though the 401 does have an energy signature whilst cloaked, they are still very difficult to detect. It may well be this ship has detection capability unknown to other technologies. Porter nodded to Wiseman, he uncloaked the ship. The crew looked the sleek ship over. It certainly was a warrior. Almost every conceivable panel had been patched over with a mismatch of sheeting. The few small hits from the Ori engagement were plainly visible, there would be more patches. While looking over the ship, Porter and her team noticed something unusual, on the nose was painted a figure of a young woman, dressed in military apparel, obviously of Earth origin, a loosely stylised version of that, the SGC's Marines were wearing some years ago. The woman in the painting had long red hair and was carrying a mini-gun of all things. But the most curious thing was the name painted underneath, 'Julie's Justice'.

"What the hell..." Lt. Porter and her co-pilot Sub Lt. Surrudhin said in unison. "It looks like an overgrown F117, all flat sides and all...but, God it's done up like one of those old WW2 bombers." Lisa Surrudhin exclaimed. "Damn kill markings as well." She noted looking at the dozens of small symbols painted beneath the cockpit. Well, where the cockpit should be. At this time they couldn't see because there appeared to be some kind of covering over what might be the glazing. Those covers slid down into recesses and they were now staring at a pilot, co-pilot perhaps and some other crewmen, all staring equally as hard, back at them. Hard men by their looks, youngish maybe, they were all bearded, rough unkempt hair. Looking for all the world like pirates; which they were probably trying to emulate, Lisa pointed to the tailplane, where a skull and cross-bones had been painted. These men must somehow be from Earth, but who were they?

"Do you mind if I know who I am addressing?" Obviously it was the pilot talking to them. "You'll have to talk quickly though, those Ori will be back here shortly."

Carl Wiseman turned away from his console and leaned close to his skipper. "Lieutenant, if I'm not mistaken, isn't that an Australian accent?" He all but whispered. Porter just nodded in the affirmative. She wasn't quite sure how this should proceed, so she went with caution.

"I'm afraid I can't give that information to you freely sir, but it may well be we are on the same side. You could follow us to our Command ship, where we could continue this conversation more freely." There, that should be enough to gauge their leanings.

"Ah, negative on that I'm sorry. But I agree we are on the same side. Perhaps at another time soon. There is one thing you could do for us though, since you are from Earth." The pilot asked of them.

"Yes what is it?" Porter asked impatiently.

"There was a Marine officer with the SGC a few years back, Julie Henderson. If you could track her down, tell her...tell her Ben will see her again soon." Then the ship pulled away and as fast as it came, it was gone. When it did, Keira noted that aside from the ship's main weapon located atop it's hull, various other weapon stations were affixed to it in turrets, some looking to house what might be conventional multi barrelled MG's. How strange she thought.

"Skipper, he was right, those Ori are heading back this way, we better skedaddle." WO Dubois gave a warning.

Keira was still in a slight state of shock, she had to give her head a shake to clear her thoughts. "Yeah righto Dub, we're outta' here." And with that the 401 returned at speed to the Victory. "Man...this is gonna be some briefing." She told her crew.

"Keira, we've got a data burst from that ship, they must have sent it just prior to leaving." Lisa said.

"What is it Li?"

"I don't know, it's encrypted, but at the end it has, 'To Sam, I hope you find this useful'."

"I'll Betcha ten bucks that's for Colonel Carter." Wiseman said nonchalantly.

Anne sat on the edge of her stool in the Med lab, Julie Henderson stood opposite the older woman she knew was about to ask her a lot of questions, she felt quite foolish, fidgety as well. Julie was well aware this day had to come...she was not sure though if she was prepared for it though. 'God' she thought, buck up girl, you're thirty-two years old now, not a little kid.' Then pushed those words to the back of her mind when Anne spoke softly to her. She had this silly habit of tugging at her long red hair when she was nervous. She did so now, the regulation bun, had moments ago, come undone as if it had a mind of it's own.

Anne spoke softly. "Would you mind sitting please Captain." It wasn't a request. Julie pulled up another stool and obeyed the command. "I want you to tell me everything, from the start. But most of all I want to know why you believe Ben is still alive." There, his mother came straight to the point.

"_Good that's the way Henderson did things herself. She may well end up liking Ben's mum, as much as her own, God rest her soul."_

Julie related to Anne everything she could possibly remember. From the day Ben walked into her life, his first day at the SGC, what was it? Nine years ago in the mess. This quiet young Aussie kid, tall almost awkward looking, but strikingly handsome. A year younger than herself, he politely asked if he could sit with her. Of course she said yes. He talked little that first meeting, but in time she got to know him as well as anyone could. He never spoke much of his family, only that he loved them, but they weren't to know where he was. In fact he even told her the SGC did not realise who he really was. They grew close, until that last time she saw him, embarking with his team, SG11, through the gate. She remembered so clearly on that day though, Sam Carter watching the team depart, looking hard at the young RAN sub lieutenant, as if she knew him. But at the time, everyone at the SGC knew him only as a US Marine officer, he had perfected the accent to a T.

"Did you love him Julie?"Anne asked bluntly.

"Yes, very much and I still do." She withdrew her service tag chain from around her neck, to show the glittering diamond engagement ring. "Ben gave this to me, two nights before that last mission, I said yes." Tears ran down her cheeks freely. It was Anne's grandmother's, which Anne had given to her son, for the day when he would find the woman he loved.

Anne MacGregor eyed the Marine Captain with new appraisal. For nine years this young woman had waited for her son, not knowing if he'd ever come back. Not even being sure all those years if he was still alive...or did she know? "Alright then, Julie, tell me how you are so sure Ben is still alive?" No messing around, that trait she shared with her husband.

It was then Julie told her the most incredible story. So incredible, Anne believed it could not have been fabricated. As well there would be proof and evidence to corroborate the details. "About four years ago I was attached to another SG team, my regular team having all come down with some nasty virus. I was spared, because at the time I was on leave, visiting my sister. The SGC had gotten some pretty reliable intel on a minor Goa'uld who was willing to trade information on Anubis in exchange for amnesty and possible asylum on Earth." Julie paused to sip some water. "We had to make several gate diversions along the way, the Goa'uld having left encrypted instructions, that we must not be seen or followed at any point. Finally we came to an isolated planet on the edge of the galaxy, so far out of the way, it wasn't in the SGC's data base of addresses, including those of the Ancients. In a small town, quite modern actually, perhaps at an era equivalent to Earth's around the sixties..."

Anne interrupts blithely. "Ah, good times."

Julie. "What...oh, yeah, my folks always said that. Anyway when we came through their gate, we were met by a guy in uniform, a cop actually. He told us to go to a certain street and look for the local medical centre, there he said we'll find a Doctor Selene, we need to speak to." Julie stopped mid sentence, Anne could see she was thinking of something.

Anne. "What is it Julie?"

Julie. "Oh, something just occurred to me. No one mentioned it at the time, but that place was a copy of any middling town of Earth if ever there was, from that era. When we were walking to find the place we had to go to, I caught sight of a Gas Station up a side street. I didn't think anything of at the time, you know we'd seen some pretty weird stuff travelling through the Gate. But you know ma'am, I could have sworn I saw an old Buick sedan pull out from there. Apart from that, all the sign-age was in Ancient script, but the language was a form of Celtic. Crazy eh?"

Sarah Connolly pulled the sealed envelope from her jacket pocket, Jack had given it to her just before she and her new XO Major Hailey left the Pentagon. She quickly read over the orders which she had already memorised and skipped down to the last part, where she raised her eyebrows at the words..._you are to take the position as second in command of the fleet, under Admiral William MacGregor. You will report directly to him and in the event of his incapacity, assume command of the fleet._ She folded the letter and slipped it back into her pocket and turned to her pilot. "How long Jen?"

"Two minutes out ma'am. We've got a hail from Ishta now."

"Good I'll take it."

"Welcome back Sarah, I'm sorry your leave was cut short. How was Master Brat'ac?" The Sun haired commander said quietly.

"He's good Ishta, I think he's going to get married."

"Humph, Teal'c should listen to him more often I think." Sarah did not need to interpret that comment.

"What's happening now?"

"SG1 and the Admiral have boarded the second Ori ship, the Admiral requests you dock with that ship before proceeding to the other."

"Very well then, we'll see you shortly. Connolly out."

The new fighter came in swiftly passed the Ori warship's bridge, SG1 and MacGregor watched as it banked to make it's turn into the docking bay. Cam whistled softly. "I think we should have one of those as our personal transport Sam."

"Good idea, I'll ask the boss!" She smiled and glanced at Mac. He just returned the smile, which basically said, 'Get in line Sam'.

Some time shortly after, Captain Hampton entered with Sarah and Jennifer Hailey. Salutes and greetings were made all round and then Sam spoke to the newly promoted Major.

"Congratulations Major, you've earned it." She shook the young woman's hand sincerely, remembering the upstart cadet all those years ago. Sam had to suppress a laugh, she said herself Hailey would do well if she applied herself. Now a Major, a couple of years or more before her time, but the truth was, the kid could have quite easily, at least academically, gone straight from cadet to her present rank. Sam had to add a hug to her praise. Hailey embraced her mentor equally.

Mac read Sarah's orders and then waited for a short while until everyone had settled before he addressed them all. "Ok then, here's the plan. We have two Ori ships, one...we don't have enough to crew them. Two, Captain Connolly, we've established we can fly them without Priors, the bastards fixed that for us, seems they were running out of those ungodly creatures and needed humans to take control. That brings us back to one. I'd like to keep both of them if we can and as I see it we only one option."

They all looked at him, not really knowing what was in his mind, but Daniel guessed it right. "You want to use our prisoners us crew Admiral?" He looked Mac directly in the eye and saw it there.

"Yes," Everyone around him, even the two marines there drew a sharp intake of breath. There was a minutes silence until Vala spoke.

"Admiral, no offence, but those people hate us probably more than we do them. How are we going to turn them around in moments, when for all our trying, we could not do it in the last two years of the war?" She was right and everybody agreed with her including Mac. But he could not tell them what he knew. Not just yet.

Mac stood there with his arms folded, he turn about and looked at each in turn, he stopped at Daniel, an idea occurred to him. "Alright then, Daniel I want to talk with you, everyone else give us some space for five minutes."

"Sir." They all came to attention and as a group, left the bridge and headed out into the passage way. Mac took the few steps over that separated him from Daniel. "Tell me Daniel, what do you remember of being ascended?" He came to the point and Daniel got curious.

Daniel. "Actually, after all this time, I think little bits, like flashes come to me sometimes. I've never told anybody, heh, heh.." He laughs quietly... "I mean most people think I'm pretty nuts most of the time anyway. So I've kept it to myself."

"I've read your file. You said that the Ancients, Oma Desala, to be correct, had wiped your memory, do you believe it?"

. "To be honest Admiral, I'm not really sure. Why."

"Here's the thing, and by the way, call me Will or Mac please. We have around three hundred prisoners out there who's one tenet of faith was that the Ori would grant them ascension if they served and then died in their cause am I right?"

"Pretty much, yeah. You think you can turn them sir?"

"You and me both, Danny Boy."

"What, heh, heh, sir, I mean Will you've gotta be kidding."

"Nope!"

Ten minutes later everyone else had gathered once more in the bridge, Mac outlined their plan. They were going to bring about one hundred of the Ori personnel over to this ship and have them assembled in the cargo bay area. Mac had some of the marines take the body of Thalas down there and asked Sam about the weapon they had found.

"As best as I can figure, it's an outsize ZPM with a warhead attached. From the readings I took there is a high probability it is very much like the Ancient weapon that was on Dakara."

"To create or destroy all life forms Colonel Carter?" Teal'c replied.

"Yes. And with that power source, combined with whatever he said was left behind by the Ancients down there in Ganymede's ice, it might easily have destroyed all life, not only in our Solar system, but a large part of this galaxy as well. I believe sir, we should try and discover what it is he was about to connect with."

"I agree Colonel. Sir if I may?" Sarah said.

"Yes Captain?"

"General O'Neill said I was to command one of the Ori ships. I know he meant the first one we captured, but perhaps if I may ask, why not this one. With a small crew, we could stay here awhile and find what it is Colonel Carter was talking about here on Ganymede. We won't need any of the prisoners here for that sir, besides we can't possibly take them back to Earth can we? At least not at this point."

Cam squeezed in between Sam and Mac. "Captain's right sir. We can do whatever we need to do over on the other warship sir. We still have a mission to finish, a fleet to catch up to."

"Well it seems we have democracy here. Ok then. Cam, have the marines put that garbage in a body-bag and load it on to our 401. Then tell them to remain on board with the captain and major. Jonas we'll take you back to Ishta's ship, then she can catch up with the Victory. I'll speak with her when we take you over. SG1, we have a job to do on the other ship, then hopefully, we can catch the fleet ourselves. Any questions?"

"The IOA want one of these ships intact, so I guess it'll have to be this one when I am finished here sir?" Sarah asked.

"Mmm, yeah...let em' have their toy Captain. But I'll need you back out here with us a.s.a.p, ok."

"Yes sir, we'll um, ah hitch a ride on whatever we can sir...Sir."

"Yes Captain?"

"I'll need at least four or five other techs, if there's any to spare amongst the crew we have on the other ship, our guys I mean."

"Consider it done."

SG1 and Mac were returning to their craft, after the meeting with Ishta. The Jaffa commander did not take it too well being asked to leave them behind and catch up with the Victory. But in the end she knew her responsibilities to the Galaxy at large, and conceding that the threat had been extinguished here, she finally agreed, only after she performed one last request for the Admiral, he would signal her, and then take her leave at flank speed, when the job was done.

As the team proceeded down a passage toward the cargo bay, Sam stopped to ask her uncle a question.

"Sir how are you planning to 'convert' our prisoners? Have you thought about what we'll have to do if you don't succeed?"

"Sam, you worry too much. Daniel and I have it all worked out." Sam looked over to her friend, who just shrugged his shoulders and mouthed the words 'I don't know Sam.' The others of SG1 looked at him also.

On board the other Ori ship, SG1 disembarked in the hangar bay and was greeted by the detachment commander, Lt. Colonel Petr Szbeski, a solid American officer of the Delta Force, despite his Czech background. He saluted smartly to the Admiral and Mac returned his salute with equal enthusiasm.

"Well Colonel, everything in place?"

"Yes sir. We have all the detainees gathered in the starboard cargo area, I'll have some of my men bring the body over sir."

"Here's a question, why are we dragging this guy's dead derriere, all over the place?"Cam asked.

"All part of the plan Cam, all part if the plan." He then turned to Vala, who seemed to be in some sought of dream state. "Vala, you ok?" She didn't answer. "Vala!" He spoke a bit louder. Daniel leaned toward his friend.

"What, oh. Yes sorry Daniel. It's just that it was on a ship like this, I brought Adria into the world."

"You regret not being able to save her Vala Mal Doran?" Teal'c said with understanding in his eyes.

"Yes." She said softly.

Cam walks slower to let the Admiral come beside him. "Sir if I may ask, what are we gonna do if there are more like this Thalas guy on this ship?"

Will looks him directly in the eye. "I'm counting on it Cam." All Cam could answer was. "Whoa."


	4. Chapter 4

**A Few Ori**

Sam and the others got a little ahead of them and Mac calls to them. "Hang five, people." They stop and turn to face him. "Alright here is what I need you all to do. Daniel is with me..." He sees a worried look upon his niece's face... "Don't worry Sam, we'll have...Colonel how many fellows have you got guarding the um, detainees?"

"Thirty two sir, and another twenty throughout the ship." Petr said convincingly.

"Sam we'll have thirty two heavily armed soldiers covering our back, so I want you, Cam, Teal'c and Vala to go over this ship, take some of those other troops with you if you must. But I don't want to take any chance of something nasty catching us by surprise if you get my drift. Look out for anything unusual, or particularly, a person or persons who may be in hiding." Mac, looked at his niece, searching something, he couldn't figure it out just now.

"May I suggest Admiral, one of us should perhaps go to the bridge and monitor our surroundings, now that Ishta has departed." Teal'c proposed.

"Good idea Teal'c. Vala you've got the bridge ok." She was about to protest, but one look from Mac dissuaded her otherwise. He saw her expression, somewhat like his daughter when she wanted to have her own way, even as adults, women were good at that. "Ok then, take two marines for company. Vala beamed like a kid on Christmas day.

"Yes sir Admiral." And she was off. Daniel called out to her running figure. "Don't touch anything." She just waived and was gone.

Mac turns to the others. "How old is she?"

In unison they answer. "About fifteen."

"What oh, yeah heh, heh. Right then, you have your orders, call in if you find anything ok?

"Yes sir." And the remainder of SG1 left him there with Daniel and the Colonel. "Let's finish this up Daniel."

In the vast space that served as both cargo and a maintenance bay, the prisoners were gathered, ringed by Petr's troops. When Mac mentioned to Sam about being heavily armed, he did not realise how prophetic his words were. Apart from standard issue P90's and M4a's, other soldier's had a variety of heavier calibre weapons, 7.62mm minim's and Steyr F89's. Though the prisoners far outnumbered the soldiers, if they so much as passed wind, they would be dead. More than half of the troopers were from the newly formed 2nd Jaffa SF battalion.

Mac surveyed the sullen looking Ori followers. True enough there were Jaffa amongst these lot, probably from the Rishek clans, the rest was a mixed bag of humans. A few might have been from the original Ori incursions that were left behind when the Ori were defeated on their home turf; the rest most likely were from this galaxy that had swallowed the drivel the Priors dished out to them. An interesting situation here he thought.

But for the moment he was looking for something else, he scanned the groups, some sitting on the deck, some standing together, some idly chatting. Over toward the rear of the crowd, there, he spotted what he was after, he counted them, twenty two, standing off in a bunched group, keeping a little distance from the rest, he looked hard at their faces, six he recognised. Grimwald, Tolon, Bethyl, Hogarth, Fletch and Seannor, all Ori lawmakers. The others were just vague faces he would probably have known millennia ago, or Agathon would have. He turned to Petr and whispered instructions for those to be watched more closely, the colonel slipped away and placed his men accordingly.

Mac grabbed Daniel by the arm and guided him toward the centre facing the crowd. "Righto the Daniel, now we turn the masses."

"I'm not sure I know what it is you want me to do?" He said quietly.

"Just follow my lead son, I'll guide you." He placed his hand gently on Daniel's shoulder. Then he addressed the multitude. "Listen up all of you." _Damn good acoustics in here he thought._ "We are going to give you three choices; one, we will give you your freedom if you want it. Second, to get this freedom, you can join with us to fight the Ori, or third, we will drop you of at a planet of our choosing. But it will be a planet with no Stargate, so you will be on your own from that point, with no chance of ever seeing your homes again."

For the briefest of moments there was complete silence. All the assembled prisoners just stared at Will, as if he was stark raving mad. Which he probably was to even consider doing this. Then, suddenly there was uproar. There were cries of, 'Why would we join you, to fight those we serve...you cannot fight the Ori, they are the true Gods...' It went on for a bit, until Will put his hand up. "Silence!" He shouted, and amazingly, that had the desired outcome.

Mac called for the Marines to bring the body bag over and lay in front of him, he turned to Daniel. "Show time Danny boy."

Sam, Teal'c and Cam, in company with some of Petr's troops had scoured the ship fairly thoroughly, apart from those area's the Master Sergeant with them, indicated had already been searched when they boarded the ship. Sam used a life signs detector all the way and they found nothing but a few more dead of the Ori crew. There were fire-fights on several levels when the ship was taken by the allied troops, until the surrender was brought about, but only after a prior was killed. The ship's crew could not believe that was possible, only they did not know of the SGC's anti Prior device, carried by all commands now. They were presently two decks below the cargo bay and Cam was about to call it in and head back to the Admiral when an Air Force SF officer spoke to them. "Ah, colonels, you might want check this out."

"What is it captain?"

"It seems to be an entrance of some kind to another part of the ship ma'am." Somehow Captain Sullivan had inadvertently activated a control on the bulkhead and in doing so, a low portal was revealed. Joe stood there waiting for the others to come to him. The passage within was unlit, he held his M4 low with the attached torch throwing it's beam up into a narrow tunnel, about fifteen feet long. Another closed hatchway could be seen at the other end.

Mac stood over the corpse of Thalas, the crowd were visibly shocked. It would appear that they knew who he was, or at least had an inkling of who or what he was. "Nearly three years ago, the forces of the Tauri, with help from our friends, had managed to defeat the Ori. Yet here we are again, those same forces have come to try and bring destruction upon us again. Now before we detail those choices we're offering, I want to know why and how you have come here again?"

A soldier stepped forward, he was from the Ori homeworld and he looked as if he had served them a long time. For some time he just stood there looking down on the body, then he turned and spoke to his fellows. "I have been a soldier of the Ori and followed Origin for as long as I can remember. I believed in serving them, the Origin taught me they were to be revered as Gods. I never doubted it. This one..." He pointed to the corpse. "Told me that we have strayed, the Priors were corrupted and surrendered us to our fate, he told us that he and those that came with him, would lead us back to the light, that they were the successors of the Ori and we should follow them..."

Daniel and Mac wondered where this was going. The SF were getting twitchy as well. Something was going to happen, but what. Mac kept a sharp eye on the ones he knew were capable of causing them a lot of grief. The old soldier continued.

"They showed us miracles, healed our sick and injured, they said nothing would befall them, for they were indeed children of the Ori themselves." He took a deep breath. "My friends I think that once again we have been lied to. They may be Ori, but we have the right to choose our freedom. I will go with these who were once our enemy. It is those that choose to take the Origin path or make false claims in the name of Ori who are our enemy." At that point the man began to grasp his throat as if he were choking. Mac looked up at the group he had targeted and saw the one he once knew as Hogarth holding his hand forth, toward the soldier. Mac clicked his coms to another channel. "Now Ishta!"

Daniel had only time to give Will a puzzled glance. A shock wave passed through the entire ship, many lost their footing and frightened faces were everywhere. But in the rear, the group that the Admiral had singled out did not. They must have realised something had happened that would effect them alone. A tall man Mac only barely recognised, reacted swiftly. He turned to the nearest SF and struck him violently, as the soldier went down the man grabbed his weapon, unfortunately it was a F89, he turned it towards Mac and Daniel and fired a burst. He was clumsy though with the unfamiliar rifle, and his firing solution was blocked by the crowd. Five went down immediately, one round did manage to find Mac's shoulder and a young SF was severely wounded. The other of the Ori group tried to rally behind the one with the weapon, but not before another SF took him down with a single shot to the head from a M4. Petr's soldier's moved in quickly to restore order, and some surrounded the remaining Ori and forced them into a kneeling position, hands behind their heads.

Vala was happily raking in her bets from her two SF companions. She was a hell of a card player. The faint echo of gunfire could be heard by all three. Startled she looked at the nearest soldier. "That sounds like it came from the cargo bay I think" He said without panic.

"We'd better get down there, quickly." Vala was good at ordering males about. She clicked on the radio. "Samantha, Cameron, I believe there may be trouble, we heard gunfire coming from Daniel and the Admiral's position."

Sam was hovering over a console in the discovered section. Her and the rest of the team had found that, the compartment they were in, was actually an escape module, with it's own propulsion and guidance systems. Within the main chamber, there were seventy two cryo chambers, very much like the one General O'Neill used in Antarctica. Not enough for the entire crew of a ship of this size, but Sam figured, there were most likely to be one or two more of these modules. She was about to dash out as soon as she heard the radio call from Vala, until Cam stopped her. "No Sam. This is too damned important. You stay, we can handle it. Sullivan, stay with Colonel Carter. Teal'c with me." Sam was about to protest, but she knew Cam was right. She reluctantly watched them leave.

As the troops were trying to restore order, another of the Ori turned on one of the SF's. It was the woman Mac recognised as Bethyl. She had somehow gotten hold of the soldier's knife and slashed him across the throat, in the confusion one of the others grabbed the dead man's rifle and immediately turned it on the nearest guards. Three of them succumbed to the fire, a fourth badly wounded fell as well. Other soldiers organised quickly, but not quickly enough. Another Ori collected the weapons of the fallen and all of them gathered themselves together and positioned themselves behind some crates and a damaged fighter on the deck. A riot of panic broke out amongst the other detainees, a riot Mac did not think he could easily quell. He was going to lose control of the situation. 'Damn.' He swore under his breath.

Cam and Vala with their groups almost ran into each other in the passageway leading to the cargo area. They were in the section that would bring them to the rear, or more precisely, forward of the Admiral, but behind the Ori. One Marine had already appraised them of the situation as they drew nearer to the large entryway, about thirty metres away from the Ori group. Inside a few of their followers, perhaps those more fervent to their doctrine, scampered to join with them. Some of the SF's and Marines fired above their heads to stop them and would have shot them, only Petr ordered them to cease fire. Not out of fear of killing any of them though. No, he was worried a hull breach could occur with a wrongly placed shot.

'This has to end now.' Mac said softly to Daniel, who had his own P90 pointed toward the crowd. He yelled at the hostiles. "Drop your weapons now. You cannot escape this, it will only end in your death. Stand with your hands above your heads and leave the weapons on the floor, now!"

One of the Ori, a male, replied. "It is you who will not escape. We know who you are, but we are more. Leave this ship now, or we will start shooting. Your weapons, though primitive, are very effective. We can harm a great many in here before you get us, 'Admiral'." He used the word almost as an expletive.

"You would kill your own people? What kind of beings are you?" He knew very well. Mac was biding his time. He was well aware the gunfire would be heard through the ship, and something he had seen told him they will come from behind these pestilence.

There were about fifteen who had managed to rally to the Ori, the rest tried to find cover as best they could. Marines and Sfs did their best to get them to safety, mainly out into the passageways. The Ori who had seemingly taken command, shot a burst directly at those nearest to them. Ten or more went down. "There's your answer."

Daniel realised at that point, that he, Mac and Colonel Szbeski, were standing right out in the open. Petr had his M4 held ready to shoot anything that moved behind those crates, Mac stood firm.

"Sir..Admiral don't you think we should find some cover?" He asked.

"You can if you wish Daniel, but I'm standin' right here where they can see me." He half turned to look at the other two.

Daniel just shrugged. "Oh well, if you're staying, I guess I am."

"I'm with you sir." Petr said.

"Damn good guys." He clicked his coms. "Sam, Mitchell, Teal'c. Where are you?" He spoke softly, but urgently.

"Sir, Teal'c, Vala and I with a few troops are stationed in the companionway, just up ahead of you, behind some guys with guns. What's goin' down sir. We can take out some from here...over." cam replied.

"Not yet Cam, hold your position." He knew that Ishta's use of the Ori weapon, attuned to the anti-prior device frequency would work, but for how long? It had to be a lot longer than the regular devices, but how much longer? Hours, days? Do the Ori themselves realise? He whispered into the coms. "Cam do you or any of you have silencers for your weapons?"

"A moment sir." He questioned the soldiers with him, one of them, a young Kiwi corporal had a silencer for her M4. "Ah yes sir we do, how can we assist."

Mac took the interlude to stuff his handkerchief under his jacket and pack it on his shoulder wound. It wasn't serious, but God it hurt like hell. Gettin' old, he thought. "One more chance!" He bellowed, you can leave this ship alive or dead, it makes no difference to me."

"Admiral sir, do you have to goad them like that?" Daniel said, and thought immediately of Jack. _"These two are like brothers."_

"Yes Daniel, I believe I do." One thing for sure, they're definitely neutralised now, for the time being. Turning to the Colonel he whispered low. "Petr, have your troops start moving these others into the passageways, quietly in small groups."

What Mac needed now was a distraction, but he certainly was not needing a blood bath.

"Aye sir." The colonel then instructed his command to carry out the Admiral's order. In two and threes, they began ushering the other Ori followers out of the cargo bay.

Looking about, Mac thought he found what he was looking for. Directly above the hostiles was a pipe junction leaking steam, probably a waste line from the reactor cooling, damaged in the earlier battle. He hoped so. But what were the Ori waiting for. Daniel felt the same. "Admiral, what's going on?"

The minutes were ticking by. Bethyl spoke to the others in soft tones. "What do we do. We can't escape, you all know who and what he is...he will not allow us to live, and if we try to shoot our way out, they'll surely kill us anyway."

Hogarth turns to her sharply. "What do you propose Bethyl, surrender. You have something in mind. Whatever that weapon was they used has stripped our powers, it may be temporary, but it may not. The way I feel right now, it could be permanent. But this I do know, I am not going to die here, not now, not in this galaxy. Seanna, you knew him best, you told us once that he spared you, even though he could have ended your existence for all eternity, is that not so?"

"Yes it was so long ago, he looked different then, younger, yet somehow the same. How many times though, has he been reborn? A hundred? More? He may have lost a lot of who he was. This I do know, the last time we danced with him, three hundred of our brethren died the eternal death...he was much more brutal then, than I could ever imagine him to be. And you know we can't kill him, no matter how hard we tried."

Mac was getting impatient with them. "What are you waiting for?" Just then Sam called him.

"Sir, we've found something I think is pretty important."

"Not now Sam we're in the middle of something. But keep the channel open."

"Sir?"

"Just a little while Sam." He returned his attention to the problem at hand. "I'm going to give the order to open fire in two minutes, unless you drop the weapons and come out."

Just then one of the Ori got a little panicky, one of the younger ones. Obviously she did not want to die, knowing she could not ascend again. "Wait!" She stepped out from behind the crates and boxes. "Wait, let me talk with you!" She raised her hands, Mac could not clearly identify this one, he thought it might have been Rama, but he wasn't sure, she was very young when she ascended to the Ori. The others let the weapons fall, SF's quickly gathered them up and moved smartly away from the Ori.

Hogarth spat vehemently "Rama, what are you doing child?"

She turned slightly so that Mac could not see her face, she smiled wickedly at the other Ori.

"Come forward" Mac called out, and she obliged. As she drew closer, mac indeed could see who it was. A violent young woman who rose quickly within the Ori ranks, despite her youth. He had a bad feeling about this, the hairs on his neck stood up.

She came closer and stood in front of Mac, Daniel and Petr seemed to sense something as well, each of them moved to either side of her.

"I know you, or at least I knew you long ago."

Mac's companions looked at one another puzzled.

"Once though consumed with the battle lust, it was said you could be merciful."

"Get to the point, I don't have time for this." Mac knew for sure who he was talking to now, a cunning deviant, who will try anything to save her own neck. She moved just that much closer, and before anyone realised, a long stiletto slid from beneath her sleeve and she plunged into Mac's ribs.

Light years away in another part of the Galaxy, Anne MacGregor had just finished talking to Julie Henderson, she was in her private study looking over med reports, when she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her lower right chest. She clutched her side and pulled her hand away to reveal blood.


	5. Chapter 5

**Garbage Disposal**

Confusion and screaming broke out, the Ori tried to make good of the situation, and a few of them were gunned down for their effort, they corned themselves once again behind the crates, though unarmed this time. The moment Mac when down in a pool of blood, Petr, grabbed the young woman savagely and broke her neck. She slumped to the floor lifeless.

Daniel bent to check on the admiral, he was alive, but just. A couple of SF's ran to his aid and with Petr as guard, Daniel and the two soldiers carried Mac out into the passageway.

Petr, made sure everyone was out in the passageways, and found a control panel, he activated it and both hangar passageway doors sealed shut, he turned to Daniel. "How is he doing Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel was in a rage, he looked up at the colonel from his kneeling position over Mac, his hand and a cloth trying to stem the bleeding. "Not good" he shouted. He clicked his radio "Sam...Sam, we need you here now!" His voice quivering with rage.

Vala, Cam and Teal'c made their way over to him at the same moment Sam replied. "What is it Daniel?"

"The admiral is down Sam, he's alive but bleeding badly,..." Daniel pauses and shouts down the confused corridor. "Medic! We need a medic here now!"

"We're on our way Daniel" Sam replies urgently.

On board the Victory, Dmitri listened intently to Lt. Porter's report. The scans showed large concentrations of not only troop build ups, but what appeared to be labourer's camps or more likely prison camps. He decided they needed boots on the ground for a closer inspection.

"Chung, get the SG teams commander up here immediately." He said anxiously.

"Sir, we two on board, sir!" Leanne said.

"I don't care who we have XO, just get one of them here!"

Leanne examined the status board and saw that Major Heine Keller, was on light duties. She picked up the intercom and called the SG ready room. "I want to speak to Colonel Scott please."

"Yes ma'am" The other party replied.

Kimberly Scott picked up her gear and with her 2ic in tow, made their way to the bridge. In the elevator she turned to Lt. Rafael Santos, an easy going Texan, who had been with his boss for two years now. "Raf, what do you think is going down?"

"Not sure Kim, but I heard a buzz about five minutes ago, there might be a large camp of prisoners down on the planet....might be a rescue mission."

Kim looked at the man she had often shared a sleeping bag with on long and lonely sorties, she was always curious where he got his "buzz's" from, almost always correct as well.

The two of them exited the elevator together and walked swiftly the short distance to the bridge, they both saluted Dmitri, who lazily returned them with a casual wave of his hand. He was impatient today.

In the med-lab, Anne staggered to the door and slammed it shut. She lifted her shirt and turn toward a stand mirror, she had a deep gash, running from just below her right rib, across to her stomach, about 75mm long. Blood flowed freely from the wound..."What the...." She exclaimed hotly. Anne stumbled back and landed in her chair, she clicked her coms and called Petty Officer Yakuno, "Miki, I do not wish to be disturbed, send anyone who comes to Dr. Pavlov, he'll be on in fifteen minutes anyway. And get a message to him, to use med-lab two."

Her room seem to sway, the lights grew dim, and the next Anne knew, she was in darkness. She fell back onto the examining bed, her side burned like the fires of hades. When she thought she might just pass out, she heard a faint voice call to her.

"Anne, don't give in, I'm here to help you." It was an unfamiliar woman's voice.

She wasn't one to panic, but the door was locked, who was this. Anne felt a little fear, even more so when a shimmering white essence appeared in front of her. It grew together, to form a woman, someone she recognised, not from her own life, but from the SGC records.

"Dr Weir?"

"Ah, so you know me do you?" Elisabeth said as she stepped closer, now fully formed, dressed in a long white gown.

"Er, no not really. I just read all your file, but aren't you supposed to be...."

"Dead?" Elisabeth laughed heartily. "Yes I thought so as well. But the Asurans gave me quite a lot of time, before they thought they were finished with me, I devoted that time to all I learnt about ascension, and to be brief, here I am!" She smiled sweetly.

Anne was still somewhat stunned. "So why are you here"

"To help guide you on the rest of your journey Inarin."

At the mention of that name, something clicked in Anne's mind. Inarin, her name from long ago. She realised now who she really was. Born an ancient, and inducted into a special warrior class. But Inarin herself was not quite the same, she was always a healer, every true warrior, had a lifelong partner, who always was with them, to heal their hurts and wounds, sometimes to even save their life. The only draw back of this union, was that, if your partner took a hurt, so you did as well.

"Guide me? Christ Dr. Weir, I don't think I'm in any condition to be guided right now." She winced in pain.

Elisabeth glided over as if she was walking on air, she placed her hand over Anne's wound, and in moments it was healed. "Now you must do the same for your husband, he needs your help."

"How? He's......"

"Yes I know, your father Janus, always said you had difficulty with this part."

On the Ori ship, there was a calamity, there were a number of wounded and dying, some small few SG personnel amongst them. People were panicking, and Sam with the remainder of the SF's arrived just in time to quell the disorder. Sam raced over to where her uncle lay semi-conscious. She looked him over.

"Why is he like this, a knife wound yes, but he should still be alert." She said with panic in her voice.

"This!" Petr held up the blade he retrieved from the now dead Ori woman. "One of the refugees, said it had been poisoned, he could smell it"

Daniel was getting impatient. "Sam, what are we gonna do with those.." He indicated with his thumb, the Ori trapped in the now sealed hangar deck.

"I don't care right now, blow the outer doors for all they're worth." As soon as Sam said it, she wished she could take her words back.

Daniel as a former short term Prior, knew the ship backwards, he went to the panel Petr had used and with a savageness Sam and the team had never seen in him, he pulled crystals and exchanged them, a droning noise could be heard from inside the hangar and shouts of fear.

People crowded around the few viewing ports, just in time to see the large bay doors opening and the look of shear terror on the faces of the Ori, as they were sucked out into the dark void.

"Garbage disposal" Daniel said heatedly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Dream Walker**

It felt as if the cabin shifted, all the colours gone, looking around, to Anne it was like an old sepia photograph. Elisabeth was now gone, but her voice rang in inside her head. Reach out for their dreams Inarin, that's where you'll find him.

In that void, she began to see the surroundings of her cabin be replaced by what appeared to be millions of stars, or more precisely, pinpricks of bright lights, and they indeed had colour. Anne began to recognise the pattern. Light pale blue, asleep. Pulsating white, awake. And a slowly throbbing yellowish light was somebody half way in between, or injured. Each light had their own signature as well. As Inarin, she could recognise different people, from their signature light.

She searched about, got her bearings and looked toward the direction of Earth's solar system, there she found what she was looking for, her husband, but in her mind, it was Agathon, not Mac.

Sam and the team, with help from the SF's, restored order. She knelt beside her uncle holding his head, his breathing shallow, they had stemmed the bleeding, but he was feverish.

"We've got to get him out of here." She appealed to anyone who would listen.

Teal'c , Daniel and Cam offered to carry him to somewhere more comfortable. One of the Ori refugees offered to show them to a private cabin and they accepted. Cam spoke quietly to Petr.

"Get all these people somewhere else Colonel, but somewhere you can keep an eye on them, and make sure no one goes for a walk on their own."

"Yes sir, it will be done."

Inarin found herself in the passageway's of an Ori ship, shadowy figures passed by her as she searched out her quest. The strange colouring, she had become used to. The shadows, she realised were the people on board, awake, so not quite there, unless they may perhaps entered what was commonly called a daydream. It was a sensation that drew her on, nothing she could describe, she just knew where she was going. Turning down a left passageway, a gleam of yellowing light shone from a side room or cabin. She entered, there were figures in here as well, surrounding the figure of Agathon, laying upon some kind of bed or couch.

Inarin was not sure what would happen, it had been a very long time since she had done this. She was quite sure the other=s were not aware of her presence, she approached her lifelong partner and crouched beside him.

As Mac lay there, Sam wiped his sweating face, "Don't the refugees know if there is an antidote for this poison?"

"We asked all around Sam, if they do, they're not saying." Cam replied. But I'll take Teal'c with me, and we'll do a little more digging!"

"Yes please Cam."

"I'm coming to." Vala stood and joined the other two, Daniel went to move, but stayed to support Sam.

Inarin knelt beside the bed and whispered to her husband. "Agathon, Agathon, can you hear me?"

His eyed opened slowly. "What, Anne, where...oh, Jesus, am I dead?"

"No, you've been stabbed and poisoned, I'm here to help"

He looked about and noticed the off colouring, and the fact that his wife was there when she was on the Victory. Then that other self took over. "Inarin, it's been a long time hasn't it? So what have I done this time? How did you manage, it was always difficult for....you." Even here he was in pain.

"Lay still, I will remove the poison and heal the internal bleeding, but as not to arouse suspicion, I will leave the primary wound for the others to fix."

"So I'm gonna wake up still bleeding?"

"A little my Love, now don't move." She placed her hand over his side, Agathon felt a cold tingling sensation, his body arched up, in response, but in mere moments it was over. He felt like he was dropped in ice water.

"I must go now, I cannot make this portal for too long, I need more practice again. But, Darling, if you ever do this to me again...I will kill you myself." She smiled wickedly and slapped him hard and then kissed him gently, she lingered a moment holding his hand, then was gone. Mac fell back into a semi sleep.

Anne awoke back in her body, the door was still locked, she checked her watch, only 3 minutes had passed, was it real, or all just a dream. She got up from the bed, some how her own body found it's way there, she checked where the wound was supposed to be, nothing, yet there was dried blood on her blouse. She changed quickly and headed out for the bridge, she had to try and get a subspace message through to the SGC.

Mac opened his eyes to see Sam leaning over him, past her a worried SG1 looked at him, Vala had returned and was dabbing his brow with a moistened cloth, she found a medic and he was just finishing suturing his wound. The young man stood and told Sam, that was all he could do for now, the rest was up to the Admiral. Weakly Mac spoke.

"So, what did I miss?"

To which, Vala just stopped mid brow mopping and Sam opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

Cam was the first to speak, he and Teal'c had come up empty.

"Sir, you had us worried, we thought we were going to lose you!"

With Sam and Vala's help he slowly sat up, wincing a he did, Sam tried to push him back, but he refused, politely.

"I'll be ok Sam, yeah Cam, I thought I lost me almost as well, I think an angel is watching over me." He said candidly, little did they know. "So, what's our situation?"

The group as a whole told him everything that had occurred, including Daniel's part in ejecting the Ori, Mac was a little perturbed by that, but not much, he only wished he could have interrogated some of them.

Anne began to run toward the bridge deck as she heard the call that they were assembling troops for a ground assault, there was something about this she felt strongly she must be a part of. On her way she saw Julie Henderson with a strike team, the two women smiled briefly as Anne passed her. One level up was the bridge, but there was an auxiliary communication station just down the passageway, she headed passed the elevator and turned left, opened the door quietly and peered in, only one technician was on duty, she crept quietly behind the sergeant, placed her hand upon his shoulder, and as he slumped into a deep sleep Anne began searching the ship with her mind. She needed a seven digit security code other than her own, and there were only three others she could use. _"Bingo" _After a few very quick dream touches she find the one she was looking for. '993405GZ' Then she typed this message. "Jack, MacGregor needs help, urgent." After checking to see the sergeant was coming around, Anne left as silently as she came.

Dmitri was busy organising his ground commanders when Anne came from the elevator, the moment she entered the bridge, Major Chung caught the Commander's attention.

"Sir we've just had an unauthorised sub-space message sent to the SGC, from the back-up station."

"Who sent it Major?"

Er...you did sir."

"I what? Christ I don't have time to deal with that now Chung, we'll check it out later." He was confounded momentarily, but not enough to derail him from the task at hand. He saw Anne standing behind one of the ground force leaders and beckoned her over, then continued with his brief.

"Right then. We have ascertained it might be as little as two hours before any of those Ori ships show again, thanks to our unknown friend, he may take care of them altogether, but he may not. So this is a very quick, in and out mission, grab our boys and girls and any whom you seem as in need of repatriation and back to the ship as quickly as possible. Any resistance from those enemy still on the ground will need to be dealt with swiftly, any questions?"

The assembled ground force commanders give a negative response, and filed out toward the elevators that would take them to the hangar bays, Anne turned to Dmitri as they left and simply said to him. "I'm going with them, they may need my assistance."

Dmitri was taken aback. "Captain, whatever for, we have med teams entrenched with the SG groups, I can't have the fleets head surgeon endangering herself, for a simple rescue mission."

"Dmitri, if it's 'simple' as you say, there will be no harm in it for me. No I've made up my mind, there are people down there who need my help and my number two can look after anything that may crop up here. I'll be on comms if you need me Captain." She turned and followed the last of the other officers out. On her way, Anne stopped by the armoury and collected a zat and a flak vest, no point in taking chances on a 'simple' mission, she reminded herself.

In the hangar bay eight teams had assembled and Lt. Colonel Nathan Macara RMC assigned teams to the four AC401's waiting, and another four would be held back to assist with the pick ups and Keira Porter with her crew would fly EW picket, a squadron of nine F307's would provide cover, with all the minor details sorted, equipment allocated, the ground forces began marching into the back of the dropships. Anne found herself in one ship with two teams, one led by a young Marine Lieutenant, Lily Hamilton, who she had met earlier, when the girl had reported to medbay with a slight ankle injury from playing volleyball in the recrooms. She turned to the brown haired girl. Who was no more than twenty two at the most.

"How's the ankle Lily?' Anne said as she buckled her harness.

"Fine now thanks to you ma'am. At least now I won't be slowin' others down." She replied in her mid western Wyoming drawl.

Just before the all clear was given a young Marine private got up checked everyone's harness, he then stopped at Anne and thought this was a good time to put his 'lighten up' routine into play.

"I'm ready, man, check it out. I am the ultimate badass! State of the badass art! You do NOT wanna mess with me. Check it out! Hey Captain, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you! Check it out! Independently targeting particle beam phalanx. Vwap! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks..."

Both squads laughed their heads off until the 401 captain, Lt Elena Ovcharenko made the call.  
"Right, knock it off, Hudson." They heard a cackle of mirth come from the cockpit. "Settle in for the ride ladies and gentlemen, the Falcon Six express is taking you to Wonderland.

The loading ramps on all the Tornado's' closed almost in unison, then the ships began their taxi sequence to the holding line, one by one they took off into the black void, the Falcon One being the second last. Exiting the Victory was unnoticed, a little bump was the most anyone could feel, but it was when they entered atmosphere, that was a different story.

The buffeting shook and vibrated the small dropships, some of those unused to the sensation of passing through the upper layers of a planet's stratosphere looked visibly shaken, many a white knuckle gripped anything they could find, even the inertial dampeners could not check all the forces that pressured the hull. But in moments it was over, they were in clear blue skies, a calm seemed to settle over them until the enemy below, began sending up a barrage of fire.

"We're hit!" Ovcharenko bellowed out, "Taken out our undercarriage hydraulics, hung on everyone this is going to be a rough landing." The young woman wrestled with the controls, Anne watched in horror through a window as she saw another 401 go down in a massive fireball. A call came over the coms system. "Falcon leader to all birds, seems our unknown friend did not succeed in knocking out all resistance, make for landing zone 'B'...break now!"

"Roger leader, I'm coming in hot though!" Falcon six replied.

With smoke trailing from the grey aircraft and it's occupants clinging for a wild entry, Ovcharenko, saw a wide clearing in between a stand of tall pine like trees, with all her skill, she managed to level out and use the vertical thrusters to slow her descent. The landing was her worst and she felt a little ashamed, but she had saved the lives of her crew and thirteen passengers, for that she was thankful. Her second, Warrant Officer Sam Hutton, a gruff Irishman, lowered the cargo ramp door and the troopers began filing out, heads down and weapons ready, all around them the other Tornado's had landed successfully bar one, Macara called all the units together and gave them a quick brief, for the moment it was quiet, not even the sound of wildlife penetrated the forest.

"Right now boys and girls, we're about a click from our initial landing zone, so time is of the essence here. I want smoke and lots of it, snipers get to your marked positions, spread your teams out, but our first priority is to get our boys out and safely home. The enemy will have watched our landing and most likely be headed this way." He looked about and saw his ace had just pulled in behind the gathering, three LRPV's and crew. One of the drivers got out, and gave Macara the thumbs up.

"Sergeant O'Hara, glad you could join us." He said with a wry smile. "Ok you all know the drill, the three Lerps, will go in formation, troopers flanking them at walking speed, we now have about one hour forty minutes according to ops, so lets make it clean, go...go. Air crews guard your ships, and set the self destruct on Falcon six for..." He checked his watch. "Seventeen thirty hours."

"Aye sir!" One of the Aircrew-man acknowledged him with a salute.

The began to spread out in formation and allow the vehicles to take the lead, steadily they moved toward the forest and team by team, they spread out behind them. Elena Ovcharenko and her crew attached themselves to Hamilton's team, in the process of doing so she caught Anne's arm.

"You had best stay with us Doctor, Lily and her team are one of the best, and my crew aren't too shabby either." She smiled politely.

"I have every intention of doing so Elena, I'll be your shadow." Anne replied.

As they moved deeper into the shadows, the first salvo's of opposition started to rain down amongst them, obviously the enemy had learnt from the Tauri or other so called primitive races, the advantages of percussion weapons, great blasts of earth erupted and a few went down, some were pulled clear by their comrades. The LRPV's, using guidance from the 401 far above them, concentrated their Bushmaster cannon and forty millimetre grenades in a pattern to neutralise the threat. The troopers spread out a little further to minimise casualties, six snipers rushed on ahead to take up their positions on a bluff overlooking the camp. Soldiers began fitting smoke canisters to their grenade launchers and firing them as they gained more ground.

Anne, following closely behind Lt. Hamilton, closed her eyes ever so briefly and touched the dream road, she found three ugly red sparks, about two kilometres from her to the north east. That was her destination.

Aboard one of the grounded Ori ships, a man wearing a crimson robe, prodded his two companions as they supervised the defence with their minds, controlling the actions of their 'new' Priors. "Be alert brother and sister, one of our enemy is here." He curled his mouth in a wicked snarl.


	7. Chapter 7

**Three Down**

Walter came bounding up the stairs and skidded to a halt when he saw Hank Landry talking to Doctor Lam, he wasn't sure whether to interrupt or not but Landry saved him the trouble.

"Yes Walter what is it?"

"I ah, er sir I was expecting Gen...."

"O'Neill? He's on his way back to Washington, is there something you needed him for?"

"Ah no sir, you'll do fine, I mean ah sir....."

"Come on Walter spit it out, I'm a busy man today." Landry said with a slight gruffness to his tone. Carolyn placed her hand on the General's arm. "Excuse me dad, this can wait, I'll catch up with you later." She turned and left the two of them standing there, Hank called after her. "Lunch?"

"Okay dad." He heard from the passageway.

Walter took the opportunity to finish what he wanted to say, before something else got in his way. "Sir, yes sir...ah we have a subspace transmission from Victory sir, it says simply MacGregor needs help, nothing else sir."

"Yes General O'Neill briefed me, Admiral MacGregor's out with those Ori ships at the moment isn't he?"

"Yes sir, but he has no back up, as the Victory and the Free Jaffa ships have already left sir." Walter tried to remember something, he was perplexed, because he usually wasn't like that, then it hit him. "Oh sir, they have about six 401's with them, if you need to contact the Admiral they should be able to receive transmissions sir."

"Good do so and find out who we have that is closest right now."

"Yes sir." Walter retreated smartly and left Hank to ponder the reason for the help call. Something was up, he felt an itch in his neck that always warned him when things might go awry.

For a few moments the bombardment ceased, whether the LRPV's gun were having an effect or not, was unknown, but the Victory's ground force to the chance to push forward and have their wounded beamed up to the ship. Macara kept Dmitri informed of the situation constantly but rejected the offer of more troops, there was no sense in risking more lives on an op that may go haywire at any time. So far they had six wounded and three KIA, not a good start, and they hadn't even seen the enemy face to face as yet.

As they drew nearer to the woods edge, the encampment perimeter could be seen just barely through the smoke haze, the snipers had a clearer view from their elevated positions and using data from their hand held map displays, relayed back to them from the Victory, they could pinpoint with accuracy the various individuals on the camp. The Ori fighters had retreated behind barricades and were using their prisoners, whipping them in fact, into making a defensive wall of sandbags and debris. Captain Kyle Baker, who was spotting for his sniper, Corporal Amy Sutton, clicked his coms.

"Colonel Macara, we have a bead on several goons from here, and their artillery is dead right now. Confirm action over."

Macara saw an opportunity and took it, he wanted this done and finished, it was taking too long already. "How are the captives dispersed Baker?" He said as he indicated for the remaining troops to gather for a final assault.

"They've got them assembled near the sandbags at the moment, but wait...they're moving them behind the lines, sir I have an idea."

"Let's hear it Baker, we don't have much time." Macara said as looked at his watch again.

Kyle scanned the rear of the camp, the was a large clearing directly behind some crates and boxes, out of sight from the Ori and Jaffa fighters. The only problem he could see, was one single Prior, was herding the prisoners now, and he could prove to be trouble. He needed to be dispensed with. Was he aware enough to be shielded, only one way to find out. "Colonel, if we could get Victory to beam in a stash of weapons and ordinance to the prisoners, there's quite a lot of them down there, once they are fully away from the barricades."

"How long Captain?"

"A minute or so sir, they're filing up the hill now, but sir there is one snag."

"Oh shit, now what?"

"A Prior sir, he's the only one guarding our boys and girls sir."

Christ...fu....can you take him out?"

"We can try sir, normally if he was just a guard, yes, but you know sir...."

"Just take the friggin' shot Baker, do it now and have the others start picking off those in the front they can get a bead on. After a count of ten, we're coming in."

"Sir!" Kyle got down low beside Amy and gave her the instructions, he followed on with orders to the other sniper teams to start taking out individual enemy the moment Sutton fired her L115a3. She adjusted the Schmidt and Bender sight corrected for wind and slowly engaged the trigger, the Prior's face filled her scope and as the heavy magnum round discharged,

Garkern as he was formerly known when he faithfully served the Ori alone, had two masters now, those who claimed to be the Hallowed ones personified, and the one who lived within him now, Karesh a goa'uld of minor standing. But neither anticipated what would come next as he raised his arm to eliminate these non believers who been as slaves these last few years. He drew the energy that the Ori gifted to him and was on the verge of vaporising them all, when something made him turn, there was something beyond his sight, the enemy soldiers were close, but this made the hairs on his neck stand. Then he heard the cracking report, too late, there was a massive hole where the back of his head should be, and a fountain of red life left him, to shower those nearest. The captives took it as a sign, more so when a two black cases suddenly materialised near them and gunfire was heard, bearing down upon their hapless captors at the barricades. Sniper rounds rang louder than the automatic weapons fire, until the heavy, distinctive sound of MG 50's made the very ground shake.

Lt. David Liddel was the first to open one of the cases and quickly, P90's and Zat's were issued all around, there was not quite enough, but there were grenades and hand guns as well. They fell upon the rear of their enemy with vengeance, some of these men and women, Jaffa, Tauri and a few from other worlds, had been prisoners of various Goa'uld for a long time, they did not need a cause, they had one.

There were two more Prior's in the main battle group, but as much as they tried, they could not bring their powers to bear, they knew of the SGC's anti-prior devices, but had no reason to believe they would be effective in a field of battle, little did they know that the LRPV's were sending out a constantly changing pulse from modified devices, coupled with the vehicles additional power source, they were defenceless, the two of them cut and ran,leaving their men behind. But they got no further than the oncoming prisoners who were once beaten and tortured by them, they lasted seconds as they were struck down unmercifully.

The battle was waning but not over yet, the Victory's troop's had gained the barricades and hand to hand ensued. Julie Henderson was the first over the top with the remains of her team, three of the six had already gone down, and when she had nothing more to shoot with, the butt of her G36 was swinging hard as she vented her slightly controlled anger. Anne with Hamilton's team and Ovcharenko with Sam Hutton, were all that were left standing from Falcon six, but they ploughed through somehow Elena having emptied her rifle and no spare mags, went one on two with a couple of very large Jaffa, they both went down with her flurry of hand jabs and well placed kicks. And when they thought it was all over, Anne took off toward the north at a run, the others could nothing but follow, thinking she had seen more enemy, her zatgun still hot from over use.

Macara noticed in the dying moments of the battle, the Naval surgeon and three others haring off toward one of the grounded 'Toilet bowl' ships as he called them. But he was too far away and too busy to do anything about it, he grabbed one of the Australian SAS troopers, and quickly told him to get his team and go after the other three. "Sir" The young Asian man replied and with a few coded clicks on his coms, he and the rest of SG16 set off at a run from wherever they were fighting, in pursuit of a woman they almost revered as their mother.

"Shit, this is a stuff up." Macara spat as he surveyed the carnage.


	8. Chapter 8

**Into the Breach**

Captain Stewart Crichton RMC sat back against a sandbag, his G36M still hot. He saw the Aussie team go running and as his own men lay either dead or wounded, he wanted revenge. A tick in the back of his neck told him, where that lot where going, is where he could vent his anger. He picked himself up and looked toward his C.O., Macara was too involved in organising the policing of the dead and surrendered enemy to notice if one of his team leaders went missing, so Stewart rolled over the top of the barricade and headed for the nearest LRPV.

"Excuse me mate?" He asked the driver, a burly looking US Marine.

"Sir? Can I help you?" The dark skinned sergeant casually wiped mud off the fender he was leaning on, as he himself seemed pre-occupied by the grisly scene before him.

"Yes you can sergeant. I would like to borrow your Lerp, it seems the good Captain Doctor MacGregor has gone off that way..." He pointed in the general direction. "...and I believe it would be in our interest for someone to go after her, she has a bit of a start on me."

The older man looked Stewart directly in the eye. "Sir, we have about less than thirty minutes by my guess before this place gets ugly again....."

Stewart was sure the big man was going to turn him down, he fiddled with the zat gun in its holster.

"...so I suggest you get going after her Captain, she's going to be needed shortly as we count our wounded and those injured of the prisoners we've just wasted so many lives rescuing, but take care of her sir, she likes to be handled gently." He opened the door and then walked towards the scene of carnage, there were so many bodies and wounded, with the little estimated time remaining, every hand was needed. Stewart jumped in and started the engine, he almost turned it off and decided to help at the battle sight, but that tick in his neck told him no, go now.

Sitting for a moment in the truck's seat, he looked around and was thankful it was the automatic version, he had trialled in the manual LRPV and just could not come to terms with the 16 speed gearbox, he shoved the gear lever into drive and lurched off, driving down the line of sandbagging until he came to an opening some forty metres north easterly. As he turned to angle upward onto the higher ground a red headed Marine Captain hailed him down, he stop and she opened the opposite door and climbed in, she nodded to him.

"Julie Henderson USMC, you look like you're headed my way, mind if I tag along?"

"Nope, not at all." Crichton was a man of few words but he added. "How'd you know where I was heading?"

She leaned across the centre console and turned the ground mapping radar on. "I overheard the coms squawk from the Aussies, I know their code, so I was going to go after them myself, and then I saw you coming, two and two."

"Yeah right." He said as he gunned the big diesel and followed a well worn path heading north. In a very few moments he crested a rise to see the Australian's had caught up with the Captain/ Doctor and her group, just a little further on, beyond them in a low gully of swampland lay the Ori warship now sitting above the mire on thousands on sandbags, it also appeared to be running on power.

Anne turned around when she heard the engine of the LRPV, after berating SG16 for coming after her, she was in no mood for more to join the posse, she had a job to do, and she'd rather do it alone, she was of a mind to send them all back, yet there was a little protocol involved here. Anne was not a combat officer and by all rights she herself in hindsight she not be here, but that was something she could not explain to those gathered about her.

"Bloody hell now what." She exclaimed as the vehicle pulled to a stop not a two metres away. The light was beginning to dim toward dusk as a male and female officer clambered out of the truck. They came toward the group, weapons unslung, Anne went straight to them.

"Julie! What the hell are you doing here? Isn't there enough to do with the clean up? Please go back and take these others with you."

"Doctor I know there is something here and maybe our mission is not complete. That ship looks to me to be active, at best we should perhaps make sure it doesn't get off the ground before we return."

"No I'm not having you risk....."

"We tried to tell the Doctor the same thing Captain, but she insists on going there alone, well with these others she came with at least." Baker said with a little uncertainty.

* * *

**Four days ago.**

The young woman handed her supervisor the letter, he read it and then read it again. "Are you sure about this? I mean I know you are worried about your family, but I need you here...."

"I have thought about this for a month Abraham, and believe me, if there were any other way, I wouldn't be asking for this." She hefted her gun from the holster and placed it on the table in front of her.

The supervisor looked at it and thought for a moment. "Alright then thirty seven, but I won't accept your resignation. I'll give you an extended leave and I'll expect to see you back here sometime soon, how does that settle with you?" He took the gun and placed it in his drawer, took a folder and pushed it across the table.

Thirty seven opened the manilla folder. "Airline tickets, passport?"

"I've known you long enough haven't I? Good luck and take care," He stood and shook her hand warmly. "And don't forget Hayden, you still represent this agency and the Air Force, but at this time we have no idea of your movements, are we clear?"

"Yes sir and thank you sir?" She turned and walked out briskly, her long red/auburn hear swaying as she went down the long corridor.

**Two days ago**

The PA announcement seemed loud in her ears as she stood before the customs official. _"Passengers from QA nineteen please proceed directly to customs."_ It was the third time she had heard that since she entered the vast Los Angeles airport. Her flight, was delayed by a storm crossing the Pacific from Hawaii, but at least she was here now. The officer went through her bags thoroughly, asked the usual questions and then directed her to the domestic terminal for the ongoing flight to Colorado.

A tall athletic blonde walked into Poor Richard's restaurnat, she saw the man she had arranged to meet sitting in a both alone, typical black suited spook. She waived the waitress away and proceed straight to his table and sat opposite him. "Agent Barrett?"

He stared at her hard, took note of the blonde hair hanging across her shoulders. He laughed a small chuckle. "Damn straight I am Hayden, or is it thirty seven, or....."

"Don't even go there...Malcolm." She held her hand up and said his name with emphasis. "Now is everything arranged?"

He leaned across the table, close to her face, the Chanel perfume was intoxicating. It always was on her. "You are going to get me into a lot of shit for this if you screw up." He said softly and handed her a key.

"I don't come empty handed, here." She slid a photograph across, he looked at it and sat back, stuffing the picture in his jacket pocket. "It's him alright, you say this was in Hong Kong last week?"

"Yes, and I have two agents in his circle now. He won't do a thing without us knowing. Say how many frigging clones did he make anyway, and how do you know this is not the real deal?" She placed the key in her jeans,

In a hushed voice he answered. "We don't know the answer to either. Whether the one SG1 witnessed being de-snaked was the real one, or a clone no one can be sure now. The host certainly doesn't know. We talked to him for months, yet it was always the same. His answers only conferred what we knew about the original, nothing more." He shrugged his shoulders and stood. "Well I better be going...." He mouthed her name silently. "...take care and if you see your cousin, say hello for me."

"I will and thank you again." She sat for a moment pondering something before standing, then pushed her six foot frame up, she topped the NID agent by inches, close to him she said. "Maybe I'll take up that dinner date sometime." She smiled at him.

He laughed softly. "Heh, that was what three years ago when we first met." He looked at the wedding ring on her hand. "You still miss him don't you?"

"Yes...but you know I do eat now and then." They left together, Malcolm paid his tab and headed for his car once they were outside, he turned before opening the door. "I'll hold you to that." He got in and she watched the black sedan slowly drive away, then headed for her rental and within minutes she was on her way to the safe house in Colorado Springs.

**Twelve hours ago**

The security fence was no problem, neither were the dogs, they actually tried to lick her face when she knelt to offer them a very special morsel. The lock on the lid of the escape hatch tube didn't faze her either, and finally twenty seven levels down she reached her final obstacle, she listened for movement by placing her ear to the metal of the door, at three in the morning there should only be a bare security in the place. Hearing nothing, she proceeded to remove the eight screwed locks one by one, using an acid that would leave no smell. The commanding officer would have a small problem to deal with when it was reported the place had been breached, but they would not trace it back to her.

Now finally she was in, no one was about, she could hear the faint sound of conversation, toward what she knew to be the Gate room, but nothing else. Medlab one was her destination and she moved on. Walking casually she was within ten metres of the room, when an older airman, a Master Sergeant came toward her, he looked briefly at her, seeing she had her cap on and saluted smartly.

"Ma'am." Was all he said, and proceed on his way. She took note of his name tag, 'Walter Harriman' then carried on her way until she found herself in the front room of the medical wing.

She scanned around looking for the locker Malcolm told her of and found it, took a few steps back and turned right into the ward, one nurse and two patients in there, the nurse was dozing by one of the beds in a chair. Returning to the front room and the cabinet, she took out her ever present kit and had the door opened in seconds, she found the vials and the air powered injection gun, loaded a single blue vial and went to the computer terminal. There she found the bracket to hold the gun and placed it there, and hacked the computer. She found all her data there, so Agent Barrett had not let her down so far. It took only a minute to download her ID into the vial, then she removed her jacket and shirt and inserted the personal locator into her shoulder with a soft hiss of air from the gun. The young woman replaced everything re-locked the cabinet and as calm as she came in, went looking for the room she knew would be set aside for her. On level nine she found it opened the door with her new identity card, which worked perfectly and entered. Closing the door softly she then turned the light on and found a kit bag on the bed, and a note. She read it.

"_Your folks are going to be so pissed, just so long as they never find out it was me." _It was signed Malcolm Barrett. She folded it, tore it and then went into the small bathroom and flushed it away. Now all she had to do was wait. After undressing she got into the comfortable bed and was asleep in moments.

Walter never missed much. The second he was in his chair in the control room he was on the computer. His watch buddy, hadn't even noticed he had slipped away to the toilet, as he snored in the other chair. Walter would wake him shortly as they were both due to go off watch at four. He mumbled the name to himself _"Hayden" _and typed it in. There were six on the SGC files, scanning down, he found the one he was looking for. A RAAF Flight Lieutenant who had come in from the Gamma base four days ago, awaiting transfer to one of the new cruisers, the 'Fraiser'. That was her face, he was looking at, but he just could not place seeing her before. He looked at the log time and saw she had arrived when he was off watch. Well ok he thought, but there was something strange about her. Her looked hard at the face, wiped his glasses and looked again. "Damn, a lot younger, but if she's not related to Colonel Carter, I'm drunk." He softly said, then nudged the airman beside him.

* * *

Macara had managed to get almost all of the captives and most of his wounded off when he got the call. _"Incoming in less than twenty minutes"_ . He looked at his watch, the self destruct on the damaged four o' one was set to go off in about twenty three minutes. He had it set to lethal, so very little within a fifteen kilometre radius would be standing, except perhaps the gate. With urgency he rallied his troops, sporadic gun fire could be heard as the mopping up operation took place, coms calls went out to every team leader still left standing and the last two Tornado's had left, only one remaining to ferry the last of the ground forces back to the Victory, and that would be crowded to say the least.

* * *

The strange dark craft came streaking in toward Keira Porter's craft and immediately opened a broad range channel. "Lady get your people out of there now, you have visitors."

"I know we've got four vessels about fifteen minutes away." She replied anxiously.

"Yeah and the rest, they've brought bloody reinforcements, you have less than ten, now get out of here, I can't hold them but I'll do my best." Then he was away again, lost in the darkness of space.

Macara stood by the loading ramp as heard heard Porter's call, he turned to O'Hara as the big man climbed out of the LRPV. "Is that the last Sergeant?"

"No sir, Captain MacGregor and those with her are still afield sir."

"Shit. Close the ramp, pilot get us airborne now and head for that first Toilet bowl ship." The four o' one began to lift even as the ramp was still closing, the pilot skimming the tree tops and turned to the north.

Elena answered the last coms message and confirmed she called, to the others. "They're leaving we have hostiles inbound, we must get out of here." She looked to the horizon and saw the small drop ship lift and turn toward their position.

"No time for that. Some of you get in the truck, the rest run as fast as you bloodywell can for that ship." And to suit her words, Anne turned and bolted the two hundred odd metres towards the Ori vessel. SG16 close on her heels, the rest clambered and squeezed themselves into the rear of the LRPV, at tight squeeze, but with the rear door ajar, they somehow managed. Julie and Elena sharing the front passenger seat, that door slammed shut and Stewart gunned the engine.

Stewart didn't even think about it, he knew there would be no room in the four o' one, they were on their own now, and some how they had to get off the planet, he knew about the self destruct on the wrecked Falcon six, and he overheard the message from the orbiting cover ship. The others in the truck agreed and urged him on. But if the Captain's group entered the Ori ship first, they may end up being as good as dead. He tore past those on foot and lined up for a platform that seemed to be a landing into the ships hold. Amy Sutton saw the truck go past and picked up the pace being the smallest. "What the fu..." She screamed.

High above the planet Porter's craft was getting updated contacts by the second, her EWO couldn't keep up with the stream of data coming in, in the next instant a call came through all their headsets from the Victory. "Porter get the hell out of there no........" A massive bolt of energy ended the transmission as the picket exploded in a savage ball of flame, her escorts took the hit as well and the four o' one with six three o' sevens were wiped from existence.


	9. Chapter 9

**Ori's Revenge**

Walter raced into General Landry's office, looking slightly excited. Hank sitting behind his finely polished desk looked up at his Chief Master Sergeant with an expectant look. "Yes Walter? You have news I hope?"

"Yes sir, General Caldwell has returned with the Daedalus, Fraiser and Britannia from the three forty's trials sir he's ready to be......"

The familiar smell of ozone filled the room as Caldwell appeared standing at the door. "General Landry, everything went well, all systems are better than expected and both ships are ready for duty."

"Walter you're dismissed, Steven take a seat please."

"Yes sir, ah sirs, would you like any coffee or something?" Walter delayed hoping to hear something, anything to relieve his routine.

"No Walter, you can go." Hank then indicted again for Caldwell to sit, which he did rather apprehensively, Walter ducked out, but he was never far away.

"Now, first things first. You're a staff officer now, so forget the titles Steven, I know it takes some getting used to, but that star your wearing has it's entitlements." He smiled ever so briefly.

"Ah yes Ge...Hank. It is a bit of a change. When General O'Neill, ah Jack put me in command of fleet procurement and testing I said great, a nice peaceful path to my retirement. It didn't quite work out that way though."

"Retirement is overrated anyway." Hank said with a wry smile on his face. "Now, how would you like to lead your new ships on a mission Steven?" Landry stood and moved to the side of his desk, Caldwell took this as a queue that the brief chat was about to end, so he pushed his chair back and raised his lanky frame. Hank continued on.

"We have a problem with Admiral MacGregor's mission, it seems there is trouble. He may be hurt or worse, I'm not sure. But be prepared for his evacuation back to the SGC. Captain Connolly is out there as well, so if the mission is not complete by the time you get there, I want you to make sure it happens."

"Yes Gen..Hank, was there anything else?" Steven raised his hand to his coms, and paused.

"No, that will be all, and good luck. Oh I almost forgot, you have six new crew members boarding with you, they're waiting in the embarkation room."

"Thanks I'll be needing them. And I hope I don't have to call on the luck." He smiled and clicked the ear piece. "Daedalus, ready, plus six in the gate room."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

MacGregor called for calm as a clamour of voices assaulted his head. "For Christ's sake, one at a time people." He shouted to be heard. The pain in his side gave him a sharp jab as he spoke.

"Sir we've done a head count, we have two hundred and fifty six here, not including our own, that makes three hundred and eight total." Cam told him as he looked around the milling crowd in the second hangar bay of the Ori ship. There was a growing impatience, they were tired, hungry and freed now of their masters, had gained a small modicum of independent thought. Sam Carter saw it and knew what may come of it if action did not come swiftly. She stood nearer to her uncle and whispered in his ear.

"If we don't do something soon Uncle Will, we'll have a riot on our hands, we can't just sit here and wait for it. Plus we need to either abandon one of these ships or take both. Either way we should be thinking about the Victory's mission."

"Agreed Sam." He said softly. Motioning Cam and Petr Szbeski to his side. "Do one last sweep of the ship, then start organising a transfer of all personnel over to the other ship, at worst if we get this heap of crap going it will only need two or three of us. I don't want to be looking over my shoulder every five minutes while we're learning the finer points of it." Casting a glance over the assembly, Mac could see a number of faces he would never put much trust in. He had a feeling that there was more going here and he didn't want that uncertainty creeping up on him and sticking a knife in him...again. "Daniel, Vala with me. Teal'c take a team and check the after crew spaces. Sam I want you to lead the 401's transporting over to Connolly, when you get there give her any assistance she needs." She gave him a firm nod and grabbing the nearest air crewman, began mustering others to join her.

Teal'c conceded a slight bow to Will. "As you wish Admiral." He said, then chose a team of four. They checked their weapons and were not far behind the other teams. There would be very little of the ship that did not get a pass by one of the Tauri teams.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jennifer was under the main console of the bridge, she'd been laying on her back now for thirty minutes and Connolly was growing impatient, they had at last managed to shut the ring transporter down, even after it had restarted of it's own accord, four times. Whether it was by luck, or it had simply finished doing it's job, they wouldn't know until they got some sensor readings of the shaft. She then began plugging into the control bio sensor, so they hopefully would be able to fly the ship. Yes the Ori had made the vessel human friendly, without the need of a Prior to make the inputs, but they had also installed biometric sensors, key to certain personnel who were now most likely dead.

"Take your time Captain." Sarah said with a turn of sarcasm. "It's not like we're on a clock or anything." She heard a loud thud, which was Hailey bumping her head for the umpteenth time.

"Shit...sorry ma'am, done we should have control now, well hopefully." She slid out and stood at her full height, which wasn't much standing next to the older woman. "Now I'll just try some rudimentary functions first."

A double click on Sarah's comlink gave her pause. Hailey held her hand, shaking just slightly above the control and waited for her commander's word. Sarah held her own hand up to signal the younger woman to wait, _"Damn this is getting old." _She thought to herself. "Connolly here."

"Ma'am, it's Hampton. The transporter has stopped." The marine told her without much ado.

"We know that Captain, anything else?" Sarah was feeling uneasy about this whole affair, she longed to be doing something, anything other than this.

Carl replied nervously. "Er yes Captain, ah ma'am there is a ring transporter at the bottom. It's about twenty three miles down through the ice, we dropped a atmo surveyor drone down, minus two degrees C, but there is a breathable space there. The readings indicate a huge area ahead of the drone's position...ma'am."

"Right Captain, hold for the moment, we'll be there shortly." Sarah reached over and grabbed her side arm from the commander's chair where she had left it and turned to Hailey. "Before you do anything Jennifer, see if you can raise the Admiral or somebody on the other ship. Appraise them of our status, I'm going to see what Hampton is up to..and don't touch anything ok." She headed down the long passageway and heard a faint "Yes ma'am." as her long legs took her quickly toward the nearest transporter.

Jennifer jumped up into the command chair and hefted her pack onto her lap. She reached into it and grabbed the radio pack, that would allow her to link into the Tornado's communication array. After a few moments of static, she was able to get a connection and called, she adjusted her earpiece and settled back as she waited for a response.

"Daniel Jackson here, Jen is that you?"

"Yes Daniel, could you relay to the Admiral please, I've bypassed the system control and we're about to do a test." She then told him about Captain Hampton's discovery and that the marines had managed to put all the bodies into a Ori shuttle ready for launching.

"Ok Jen I'll tell him. Oh by the way, we're sending everyone from this ship over to you, Sam should be docking now with the five Tornado's....um Daniel out."

Jennifer had to giggle at, all these years with SG1 and Doctor Jackson still had difficulty with the simplest procedures. As she settled in to wait, her right hand rested on the arm of the chair, she felt the bio pad under her fingers, then received the shock of her life when the chair activated and systems came online. But then she had to clasp her hands over her head as a blaring alarm filled her brain, threatening to explode within. In what she believed was the Ori dialect of the Ancient language, an automated voice activated, and she didn't have to guess too much what it was. A count down, somehow an auto destruct was activated. She bounded out of the chair and scanned the main control panel, her tablet was still connected and it gave her a rapid readout. "Oh shit!" She exclaimed. "Eleven minutes.........."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam enjoyed flying the Tornado, it reminded her of being on the Hammond. But as much as she loved being in command of a large ship and crew, after a while the responsibilities got to her, this was more personal. She was musing over that fact as her and the crew disembarked, only to be greeted by the blaring sound of the ships alarm and an ominous voice, obviously in the Ori dialect, announcing the ships imminent destruction. Already refugees were screaming in panic, the few soldiers were outnumbered, but the absolute fear written on the hapless faces made it easier for them to control. Sam clicked her coms twice. "Jennifer, Carter on board. What the hell is going on."

"I don't know Colonel, somehow this damned ship was automatically rigged to self destruct the moment we tried to activate anything important, I'm trying to work around it ma'am." There was intense panic in the younger woman's voice.

"Christ..."Sam exploded. "I'm here with most of the refugees......any suggestions?" She began giving orders at the same time for the SF's to gather the people back into the 401's.

"At best ma'am get them all to the ring room. We may have an out there. I'll keep working."

Sam gave the instructions to the nearest sergeant to her, in ordered but crying and wailing lines, the SF's herded the refugees out of the hangar. "I'll be there with you Jen, hang on." Sam said abruptly and ran as fast as she could for the nearest transporter, she had to guess where the bridge might be, but as it was quite similar to the same devices on Atlantis, within a few moments, she exited the sliding door and found herself only metres away from her destination. She was at Hailey's side in a few quick strides. She found the young woman, on her back, beneath the main control panel.

"Jen, I'm here what have we got?"

In Ori the voice continued. "Five minutes to self destruct, please make your way to the nearest shuttle, Hallowed are the Ori."

"Oh shit, Colonel I've done everything I could, short of pulling every flaming crystal out."

Sam felt a wall of panic inside, she had been in this situation before, and it didn't end well. She remembered, the cold and wet. But she knew this wouldn't be an ending like that one. "Damn it Jen, just pull the bloody lot out." She yelled, sweat poured down her face. But she knew only too well how the young Captain felt as well. She glanced down involuntarily to see the wet stain in Jennifer's crotch.

"Two minutes to self destruct, please make your way to the nearest shuttle, Hallowed are the Ori."


	10. Chapter 10, by Aragon101

Sam was momentarily awash in memories of basic training and her first combat flight. Jennifer must have been going insane inside her ample mind. "If its anything like Atlantis, then you should be able to pull the secondary control grid crystal out to shut down the..."

"I know!" Jennifer screamed back in aggravation. "It didn't work! It just shut off the lights on the lower level!"

Sam crouched down to Jennifer's side, she ignored the smell and instead focused on trying to save their arses. "Jennifer, calm down and think. What would the self-destruct actually detonate?"

Jennifer popped her head out from the console and saw Sam's questioning expression. She quickly went through the library in her head. "Uhh…well Ori ships are powered by an artificial gravity well. Like the Romulans."

Sam rolled her eyes, this was _not_ the time for humour. "Forget that, but what would actually be exploding?"

Thinking about the physics of the problem, Jennifer soon realised just how dire the situation was. "Oh my god, the power conduits! They'll overload and turn into plasma! The entire ship's power grid will turn into a bomb!"

"Exactly." Sam nodded and then explained. "So we need to try and disconnect the main reactor from the power grid. With any luck the secondary generators will only cause an overload and damage, no explosion."

"No offence ma'am..." Jennifer gave Sam a nervous grin. "Why don't we just run for it?"

"No time." Sam shook her head. "It'll take longer than we've got to get to the hanger and get out. We've _got_ to stop this."

Jennifer nodded and got back underneath the console as Sam got up. "Oh _for cryin' out loud.. _alright! But I'm going to need you to..."

"Already on it." Sam rolled her eyes again. Jennifer was smart, but obviously she still needed practice. "I'll try and divert all power to the aft section. There's no one there any more and we should be able to survive even if that blows up." Sam _really_ hoped this worked. It was a seat of the pants, untested and completely illogical plan, but there wasn't much choice left.

o-o

Sarah stood anxiously on the edge of the ring platform, looking for her friends Sam and Jennifer. She wouldn't leave them behind, Sarah kept thinking about that military credo, 'leave no one behind". Everyone else had safely managed to descend to what evidently was an Ancient base inside Ganymede.. Jonas and the marines had led all the refugees down in groups, leaving Captain Hampton holding the rear with Connolly.

Hampton turned to her as the deafening voice repeated it's countdown. Though he didn't understand it, he got the message. "Captain, ma'am. We've _got_ to go!" He all but shouted at her. She rounded on him, eyes red.

"No!" She yelled at him. "I'm not leaving without them."

The voice rang in Carl's ears. Somehow his mind translated for him. "Thirty seconds. Hallowed are the Ori"

"Shit... _shit_!" He let out his breath sharply and the with as much tenderness as he could muster, he hit Sarah square on the forehead with a hammer punch. Though tall and strong, the Marine captain's fist did what he intended it to do. Sarah collapsed in his arms, he hauled her onto the ring platform and was gone as soon as he hit the crystal control panel.

o-o

"We're not gonna make it!"

Sam shuddered at the other recollection that came to her. "Yes we will! Keep pulling those crystals!"

"I _am! _There's too many and in seque..."

"_Captain!"_ Sam screamed as she managed to redirect power from their area to the outside of the ship. It wouldn't save them if it blew, but it'd give them a few extra seconds. "Just do your job!"

Jennifer's legs quivered as she continued to work, her fingers were jittery with the thought of burning up in a plasma explosion. _Not_ the way she wanted to end her career.

"Thirty seconds to self destruct, if you have any final prayers to our ascended masters, now is the time. Hallowed are the Ori."

Sam had a prayer, but it sure as hell didn't involve ascended beings.

o-o

"10 Seconds to normal space sir, Fraiser and Britannia are right with us."

General Caldwell nodded as he flexed his fists and prepared for anything. "Bring us to general quarters, and tell Fraiser and Britannia to flank opposite sides. Ori main cannon can only aim one place at a time."

The Major at the helm nodded and relayed the information. "3, 2, 1."

A rip in the fabric of space time appeared before them, it was only a short trip from Earth to Ganymede. Caldwell's blood chilled at the sight of two Ori Mother-ships, so much so that.

"Sir! We're getting a message! Ori 1 is self destructing!"

"Beam any life signs off!" It was a purely gut manoeuvre, It didn't matter whether the life signs were SGC personnel or Ori followers, they were all useful in one way or another. "Shields up! Brace for im..."

On the screen, the Ori Mother ship began to detonate, the outside of the ring smashing apart from the inside with a blue orange flame, debris flying out like a fragmentation grenade. The white blue gravity well in the centre pulsated and shrunk, growing in light intensity but decreasing in size.

A massive flash overtook the screen as the ship finally detonated completely, rocking Daedalus with the shock wave of the explosion. As the flash died down, another flash appeared from in front of the screen, and both Colonel Carter and Captain Hailey appeared with their hands over their faces.

Caldwell shot up, still seeing smoke wisping from their clothes. "Colonel, are you alright?"

Sam took in a deep breath and looked around, the distinct smell of reprocessed air felt very reassuring. Beside her, Jennifer cringed and groaned softly as she realised a few of the crewmen had seen the unusual spot on her crotch. "We're... we've been better."

On the screen, Fraiser and Britannia circled the remaining Ori Ship, Caldwell could see that there was still a lot to do here so he motioned with his head. "You should go down to the infirmary to make sure you're alright." He looked at Jennifer and felt a tinge of sympathy. "Once you've both been checked, I'm sure there's more you need to do."

Hailey winced and nodded. "Thank you... General..." With no small sense of urgency, Jennifer moved over to Sam and motioned for them to move. Sam didn't question it.

The Major at the helm turned to Caldwell once both were out of the way. "General... was that?"

"Yes." Caldwell interrupted. "Happens to everyone at least once."

Raising an eyebrow, the Major asked. "Even you?"

"No."

The bluntness of Caldwell's voice had a few of the other bridge crew smiling. Granted this _was_ an attack on their home system, but humour always helped to alleviate the tension.

o-o

Rounding the corner in front of them, Cam held his P-90 up and ready to fire. Behind him. Mac and Vala held the middle while Teal'c and Daniel watched their backs. Mac kept his back to the wall as he moved, obviously still worried.

Listening over the radio, they could hear that the other Ori Mother-ship had exploded. Reinforcements had arrived though and the current Ori ship was surrounded. The 401's had been picked up as well, and all that was left was taking over this ship.

Everyone questioned the fate of the people on the first Ori ship, but they were too busy stalking down the corridors to let it invade their minds. Mac spoke quietly as he held his weapon ready to fire. "Cam, we need to hurry. No telling what might happen here now that the other's gone bottom's up."

Cam turned his head quickly and nodded. "Got it, can you keep up?"

"Of _course_ I can." Mac was annoyed at how Cam had laterally referenced his wound." Just don't sprint."

Cam smiled and turned back to his fore. "Noted."

Vala looked up and down the corridor, unlike most Ori ships, this one was devoid of most of the religious doodads that the worshippers would bring with them. "You'd think there'd be something I could take as a souvenir. A plate or trinket or something."

"Remind me never to take you to Disneyland." Daniel muttered as he stayed at the rear, now letting Teal'c move ahead more to assist Cam. "Or the Vatican for that matter."

Ignoring Vala and Daniel's quick quips to each other, Teal'c caught up to Mac, staying near and covering the angles of the dark hallways they moved through. "Are you well, Admiral?"

Mac grunted as he tried to ignore how cold he felt. "Well enough."

"You are still bleeding."

Feeling his wet and pulpy chest sticking to his tac-vest, Mac simply shrugged." Nothing serious, Teal'c. It'll take more than a flesh wound to slow an old warhorse like me down." Wincing, Mac again remembered that Teal'c had quite a few years on him. "Well...for a human."

Teal'c merely raised an eyebrow in reply. "Indeed."

o-o

Sarah felt her vision slowly come back to her, Her head ached terribly, but not so much that she couldn't figure out what had happened. "Hampton!"

Not surprisingly, a pair of Marines were by her side in an instant helping her up. "Calm down ma'am. You're safe."

Beating them off, Sarah blinked a few times to clear the fuzziness out of her vision. "Where... where am I?"

One of the marines huffed and replied. "Good question."

Looking around now, Sarah could see that she wasn't aboard the Ori ship any more, and even more, there was a distinct technological feel about the area. The subtle oranges and reds of the walls, the way the floor was smooth and hard, even the lighting was all indicative of ancient technology. The refu – _crash! _Sarah looked up as did the rest of the people around them as the large hole that had been drilled through the ice suddenly lit up in orange flame, and quickly snapped closed from the ice.

One of the higher ranking Marines screamed. "Everyone get clear!"

Sarah had no idea where Hampton had gone, but she was quickly on her feet and despite feeling dizzy, hung onto her new Marine Guard's arm as they ran away from the falling ice and towards a large group of people heading to a hallway. Sarah may not have known where Hampton was, but as soon as she found him, it was _not_ going to be a pleasant reunion.

o-o

"The bridge is up ahead, we should..." Mac suddenly stopped, as did Cam and the rest of the team. A cold shiver in the air passed onto them and the lights seemed to fade at the doorway.

Cam shivered and rubbed his arms. "Like walking on my own grave."

Teal'c became incredibly alert, his head turning side to side like a bird of prey stalking a victim. "We may not be alone."

Feeling a presence, Mac felt that same feeling he'd had before. Something was in the back of his head telling him the things he needed to hear, and it wasn't good. "_Bollocks,_ there's another Ori on the ship... How the _hell_ did we miss that?"

"Where, Where?" Vala immediately spun around, her P90 darting from dark spot to dark spot.

Daniel put a hand on Vala's shoulder in a calming and reassuring move. "Settle down, we'll deal with it when the time comes."

Cam simply shook off the feeling and flicked his P90 from semi-auto to full auto. "Ori or not, he gets in the way and he dies."

"_That will not be as simple as you imagine heathen."_

SG1 had just entered the bridge, the lights were so low that the walls weren't even visible, but the eerie golden glow surrounded by a darkness so black that light didn't seem to escape it moved forward to greet them. A pale white figure almost floated in robes that both shone and engulfed the light of the few lamps left on.

Cam didn't hesitate and he raised his gun. He fired a full burst, raking across the Ori's chest, or so it appeared until it became clear that the Ori had mentally stopped the bullets mid-flight, which now clattered down to the floor still hot from the cartridge firing.

The Ori looked directly at Mac and growled. "_Agathon..." _

"_Sotero"_ Mac replied involuntarily.

Rapt with amazement, the team couldn't react fast enough as the Ori raised his hand and shoved it towards them; A shock-wave of mental power flowing out. Mac instinctively bowed his head and covered with his arms, projecting a field of mental energy defending against the shock-wave.

The visible shock-wave rippled around Mac, Cam and Teal'c who were all relatively bunched in. But it didn't protect Daniel and Vala, both of whom flew back into the wall hard enough to put them out of the fight.

Teal'c realised that bullets would do nothing, and charged forward with his knife unsheathed. Mac groaned and dropped to one knee as he tried to recover from the involuntary mental barrier he'd erected. Cam just flanked to the side to try and get a better shot.

Teal'c reached Sotero and swung low, smashing his hand against some kind of barrier mere inches from the Ori's gut. Sotero chuckled and with a single swing, backhanded Teal'c with enough force to throw him into the shadows. Even the impressive Jaffa couldn't have remained conscious from the hit.

Cam burned through his clip, and quickly began to reload. Outside of the protective barrier Mac had put up though, the Ori simply reached out and grabbed Cam by the throat with his mental powers. Dropping his P90, Cam struggled to pry the non-existent fingers from his throat.

The Ori chuckled and in a controlled move, flung Cam around like a rag-doll he was playing with.

Mac finally recovered, and drawing in a deep breath muttered. "_Satis!"_ With formerly unknown strength, Mac jumped from his crouching position and charged Sotero. The Ori spun and fired another shock-wave of mental energy, but Mac simple swatted it aside just as the Ori did Teal'c and barrelled into him ignoring the barrier shoving his knife deep into the Ori's leg.

Cam dropped to the floor, nearly passed out from the lack of oxygen to his brain. He instinctively began to breath hard and use his flight training to force the blood into his head to regain consciousness.

The Ori and Mac tumbled to the floor, both groaning in pain from their respective wounds. But while Mac had already worn off his adrenaline rush, the Ori seemed to glow even fiercer and threw Ma off him with a rising kick. Mac landed on the ground on his back, and rolled to his feet despite his body crying for respite. "I should have known it'd be you Sotero. Sneaky bastard."

Sotero pulled the knife out of his leg and immediately threw it in Mac's direction, The Admiral leaned back dodging the blade, but groaned as his chest tore the already broken scabs that had formed. Sotero chuckled as he got into a fighting stance. "You didn't kill me then, you won't kill me now."

o-o

Having changed and been checked and given a clean bill of health, Sam returned to the bridge where Caldwell must have been overseeing the second Ori ship as well as the rescue of any stranded personnel. Jennifer had opted to remain in the infirmary and burn her old outfit, Sam didn't begrudge her the decision

Stepping onto the bridge, Sam saw on the screen that the small fleet had the Ori ship surrounded, and even more, a small picture in picture had a life signs detection on the bridge of the second Ori ship.

Caldwell turned to Sam and gave a soft smile and nod. "Good to see you're no worse for wear, Colonel. We've got a little dilemma you could help with." He motioned to the screen. "We can't get in radio contact with SG1. Something's jamming our radio signals on the bridge. It's taking all three ships scanning to even get life-signs readings."

Sam motioned to the weapons officer next to Caldwell who got up seeing a superior officer coming to take over. Not exactly standard protocol, but she _was_ Colonel Samantha Carter. "It's possible someone was left on that ship and activated the Ori's version of ECM." Sam brought up the screen of the life-signs, and reviewed the last several minutes. "That has to be 're alive but..."

Caldwell again nodded. "We know, but we can't tell what's going on. Look."

Sam brought up the live feed on her screen, and saw a single life-sign bounce back and forth, with the other 4 surrounding him but not interacting or even moving very much. "What the...?" It took Sam a few seconds to realise what was happening. She quickly re-winded her own video to the initial contact and saw that the 4 outside life-signs had gotten there much faster than should have been humanly possible. "They're fighting an Ori! We need to get them out of there!"

"Really?" Caldwell turned to Sam with a curious glance. He then realised that Sam must have been right, and turned to the Major nearby. "Beam them aboard Major. Straight to the infirmary."

o-o

Mac groaned as Sotero kicked out his legs and easily deflected the counter punch. He fell to the ground and coughed, spitting up blood. He'd reached the end of his endurance and without help, he wouldn't survive.

Sotero had been wounded as well, a gash open on his cheek and limping from the initial knife attack. A few broken bones for good measure and Mac had put up a valiant fight. "You've killed more than a fair share of my kind, quid pro quo."

Mac turned his neck up to Sotero and spit in his direction, a spray of blood and saliva misting in between them. Before he could utter his witty last words though, a brilliant flash of light removed him, and the rest of SG1 from the Ori's presence. Sotero furrowed his brow in confusion, and then turned to the large window at the front of the bridge. He could sense from the mental interfaces that his ship was surrounded. Agathon may have been weakened, but he'd enlisted help apparently.

o-o

The Major acknowledged the order and soon, the five life-signs disappeared from the screen. It only took a few seconds, but Sam was delighted to hear Mac's voice over the intercom. "_Get off me woman! You can prod me later..." _Sam winced realised that Mac must have been even _more_ hurt. "_I'm assuming Caldwell's in charge! Blow that ship up! We can't let the Ori on board escape!"_

Caldwell hardened his features and barked out orders. "You heard the Admiral! All batteries, open fire! Fraiser and Britannia, fire at will!"

Sam input targeting coordinates for the Daedalus's plasma cannons, Ori ships were notoriously weakly armoured, relying solely on their shields for protection. A pair of well placed shots would cripple the craft.

So it came as a surprise when Daedalus' forward beams raked across the hardened Ori shields. Without the ZPM of Odyssey, it'd take concentrated fire to break through. Sam handled the firing coordinates of the three ships, all working together to break through the dorsal shields of the toilet seat shaped craft.

Asgard Plasma beams, Missile trails and even Rail-gun Slugs flew in towards the Ori ship, quickly becoming a fireworks spectacle worthy of a Michael Bay movie. The Ori ship powered up, and slowly began to spin around to face Fraiser. The cruiser quickly detected that the Ori ship was preparing to fire its main gun, and fired its thrusters to stay out of the way.

Nimbly dodging beside the Ori ship like a fighter dogfight, Fraiser turned up and around in an Immelman manoeuvre putting the Ori ship's top in perfect view. Daedalus and Britannia began evasive manoeuvres as well, keeping the Ori's main cannon out of bore-sight.

A final Asgard Beam shot from Britannian finally pierced the shields, scorching the hull of the craft. Daedalus swung around and from a broadside position, rained rail-gun and missiles down through the hole in the Ori ship's shields, punching out divots and craters in the relatively thin armoured craft.

Fraiser spun around on its axis imitating a hammerhead turn, and firing a full salvo of all its forward guns, punched clear through the centre section of the Ori ship. The eviscerated decks were clearly visible as the hull breaches sucked all breathable atmosphere inside out creating a huge flame.

Coordinating their attack, Daedalus and Britannia locked on and unleashed their own barrage of explosive metal. The Ori ship finally began to twist apart as its inertial dampeners failed, and the ship spun out of control. A few more shots tore the hull plating clean off the ship exposing the main reactors to the fire-storm.

The ship finally exploded violently, sending huge shards of shrapnel and debris about, the few pieces that impacted the human ships bouncing off harmlessly.

o-o

Sarah rubbed her forehead, there was a little swelling that caused a small ache but nothing major. Looking back at where the bored hole should have been, she saw that it had collapsed and was full of ice and snow. There was no simple way out anymore without that shaft and it was another thing to add to her list of why this was a bad day. If anyone was even still out there, they'd never find them now.

Holding back her grief for Sam and Jennifer, she calmly pinched the bridge of her nose as she contemplated the situation. It was cold here, _very cold_, the first thing on her mind was survival. Her head ached, but Captain Hampton would have to wait for his court martial if she could ever find him. The two young marines with her held her steady and together as they walked the icy path inward toward a din of voices further in. They followed the sounds of voices down what appeared to be a perfectly formed tunnel.

"Captain, ma'am." Corporal Adam Singer called to her. She could just make out his form through the swirling colours in her head. "Ma'am, Jonas said you just have to see this...It's warmer inside as well." He carried an air of excitement in his young voice.

"Coming." She shrugged of her aides and hurried a little quicker. Within twenty paces, she passed out of the gloom of the passageway through some kind of barrier and into warm air. Looking into a brightly lit - it could only be described as an enormous hangar, she took a deep breath on seeing the sight in front of her.

There was a long sloping ramp leading down, along the long length into the distance on both sides were other corridors and perhaps glass walled office spaces. It had the feel of Atlantis, but the thing that held her breath in all this wonder below Ganymede, was the huge ship perched on ten stout legs. An Aurora class Lantean ship, and by the looks of it, very, very new in the sense that it hadn't been used. Carl Hampton and Jonas came to her, the former offered up an apology for his insubordination, she brushed it aside. This... this was their way out, and also this was the Marine Captain's saving grace. The crowd of Ori refugees, she refused to call them followers now, all turned when they saw the tall blonde Tauri woman stride confidently their way.

"Get everyone aboard Captain, we're leaving." She said abruptly to Carl, as a murmur of questioning voices filled the expanse.

"Captain?"

"You heard me, get everyone on this damned ship we're leaving...now."

"Pardon me, Captain Connolly, I understand your intention, truly I do, but how are we going to leave, we're maybe twenty something miles below the ice. Plus, this is an Ancient facility, don't you think we should have a look about first." Jonas said respectfully.

Sarah, rubbed her head again, which reminded her, that though Hampton was reprieved, she would square it with him later. "Alright then Quinn, fifteen minutes, have some teams split up and grab whatever's useful, we _can _always come back."

"Thank you Captain...by the way, ma'am, just how are we going to get out?"

"The McKay manoeuvre" She said bluntly, then strode toward the ship,

o-o

Will held his side as he felt the hard deck of Daedalus beneath his knees in the med-lab. He hadn't moved for minutes, and the staff were busy with others. Teal'c, the only one conscious from the Ori debacle leaned close to him.

"Do you require assistance Admiral MacGregor?"

"Give me a minute T'" He breathed deeply, and lifted his hand away from his side, blood oozed through his fingers. A gloved hand reached for his elbow, he turned his head slightly, the glare of the lights blurred the face.

"Let's get you up Dad, you're wounded badly." The familiar voice said.

"Cate...Cate." He was puzzled to say the least. His vision cleared as the young woman in the Daedalus flight suit helped him up. She wore a Royal Australian Air Force wings above her left breast which he noticed as she hoisted him to his feet. Teal'c assisted gently on the other side despite his own bruised face. Finally it hit MacGregor like a brick.

"Catherine MacGregor, what the bloody hell are you doing here?" He said and winced as the same time.

"Nice to see you too, Dad." She said with a turn of wit. But anguish was on her fair face as she tugged at the red-brown plait over her shoulder.

They then guided him to a vacant bed and eased him down. Teal'c called one of the doctors over. The Doctor left Vala with a pair of nurses who checked to make sure she was simply unconscious and came immediately. Opening up Will's jacket and shirt, he grimaced upon seeing that all twelve of Mac's sutures had burst.

"I'm going to have to ask you to give me and the Admiral some privacy, this will definitely require some invasive medical treatment." Doctor Ainsley told them. Teal'c and Cate retreated, all the while Will looked hard at his daughter. Mac's eyes told Cate that there would definitely be a talk coming, sooner rather than later.

o-o

Sam looked out through the portal of the Daedalus bridge, Jennifer stood close beside having finally gotten over the shame by shoving the experience into her vault. Their eyes were fixed on the surface of Ganymede, a large black smudge covered the surface where the bore hole should have been. Hailey's face was expressionless, her training burying all sorrow or grief for her commander. Sam knew what that felt like and was proud that Hailey had learned some control over the years.

"Sir?" The ships XO called to Caldwell.

"Yes Demspey?"

"Sir, we have a hyper-space window opening."

Caldwell raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

"On Ganymede's surface sir." The young major couldn't believe his own words as he brought the image up, and the beginning of a tear in the fabric of space time appeared on the subspace scanner.


	11. Chapter 11, by Skydiver

**Family Feud **

Cate stood outside the room for a few moments, rather at a loss as to what to do. She wanted to remain close to her father, but also knew that it could be hours before he was treated and conscious. Normally, she'd find some task to do, something to keep her mind busy. But she didn't have that here. Heck, officially she wasn't even supposed to _**be**_ here.

A medical tech pushed past her and she stepped back, feeling uncomfortably conspicuous. Years of being 'low key' kicked in and Cate left the infirmary, a passing blond officer giving her a flash of inspiration. Sam. That's what she could do. She could go and find Sam. If nothing else, the woman could give her something to do, or at least some guidance on staying out of the way.

Figuring that her cousin was most likely on the bridge, Cate made her way up there, noting a few scorched panels and broken conduits along the way.

The Daedalus - while in one piece and certainly space worthy - had taken a bit of damage it seemed. Then again, any battle you could walk - fly - away from was a good one.

She finally arrived at the bridge, both pleased and concerned that no one challenged her. A ship should have better security than this. A bridge officer glanced at her and walked over to her. "Ma'am, can I help you?" he asked, positioning himself directly in her path.

_'Maybe the security's not that bad,'_ she thought to herself. "Yes, captain," she said, noting the man's rank. "I was looking for Colonel Carter."

"She and General Caldwell are going over battle damage and casualties," the man said. He didn't offer to tell Cate where they were, and she didn't push. If she felt uncomfortably out of place now, she knew she'd feel even more so barging in on a command level meeting. The man's eyes darted lower and Cate glanced down, surprised to find a few smears of blood on her jumpsuit.

Cate nodded. "I'm Cate Hayden. If Colonel Carter asks, if you could tell her I'll be in my quarters." She didn't volunteer any additional info. Two could play at this game. Besides, now that she knew that Mac's blood was on her uniform, she desperately wanted to get it off.

o-o

"I'll be happy to ma'am," the captain answered, remaining in place until Cate turned and left the bridge. She made her way down to her quarters. Planning to take five minutes and to change into something that blended in a bit better, she entered the room, noting that the doors had no locks.

She pulled a regulation jumpsuit out of the tiny closet and sat down on the bed, not even looking down as she unlaced her boots. The heavy leather footwear thudded to the floor and she stood up, tugging at the long zipper.

The jumpsuit opened and she glanced down, sighing when she saw a few stains of blood on the tank top she wore under the jumpsuit. She yanked the white tank top over her head and tossed it across the room before she bent over the small chest of drawers, pulling out another one.

Suddenly the door to her quarters opened and she stood up, instinctively clutching the tank top to her bare chest. A man stood in the doorway, blinking owlishly at the half naked woman. Cate's instincts for fight or flight ramped into high gear for a few seconds until she recognized that the man was no threat, he was Doctor Daniel Jackson, one of Sam's friends.

"Oh, umm, wow, I'm sorry," he fumbled as a couple of crewmen walked behind him in the hall, both pausing to stare at the show.

"Do you mind?" she asked. He stared at her for a few seconds before he realized what was going on and abruptly stepped into the room, allowing the door to close behind him. Cate shook her head and turned her back on him, sliding the shirt over her head. "Don't they teach you how to knock on Earth," she growled as she turned back around. She refused to feel embarrassed by the shorts she was wearing. They covered more than any bathing suit ever would.

"Don't they teach you not to squat in someone else's room," he shot back, crossing his arms over his chest.

"These are my quarters," she said. "Hence the panties in the drawer instead of **tighty whities**."

"You're partially right," he said, pushing up his glasses. "These _**were**_ my quarters. I'm bunking with Teal'c now. So, sorry about that," he apologized. "I actually just came down to grab something I forgot and I didn't think anyone would be in here."

He walked past her into the tiny bathroom and Cate took the opportunity to pull on her jumpsuit and was sitting on the bed when he returned. She pulled on her boots and ignored him as he walked towards the door. "I am sorry about...that," he said, turning to face her as she looked up. "You kinda caught me off guard."

"Ditto," she replied, tying the laces on one boot. "No harm done."

"Still, I should make it up to you," he said.

"Don't worry about it," she dismissed, turning her attention to her other boot.

"I do," he said. "See, Sam will find out eventually and then there'll be hell to pay...and trust me, I'd rather face a battalion of Jaffa than a pissed off Sam Carter."

"It'll be our little secret," Cate said, finished with her boots and getting to her feet.

Daniel shook his head. "No, it won't. I know that one officer, he'll blab to the whole ship by dinner time. Coffee and pie, that's all I'm asking."

"Look, Doctor Jackson-"

"Daniel."

"Doctor," she said pointedly. "Don't worry about it." Almost on cue, her stomach rumbled, reminding her that it'd been several hours since her last meal. Her mind drifted for a moment to that last dinner she shared with her husband, before he shipped out. It was a miserable stormy night and her stomach rumbled then as they sat in a small booth at their favorite little Italian restaurant.

"It's coffee and pie in a public room," he said. "You gotta eat."

Cate sighed and nodded. "I guess it beats me wandering around the ship until I find it," she relented. She followed him out of the room and they walked towards the lift. "Have you known Sam long?" she asked.

"A little over ten years," he replied. "We were both on SG-1 together."

"Right," she said. "She, aah, not that we're pen pals or anything, but she never talked about it much."

"That's Sam," he shrugged. "Takes classified seriously."

"She takes a lot of things seriously," Cate said, punching the button to summon the lift. The lift arrived and the doors opened.

"Well, if it's any consolation, she never really talked about her family much so..." he said.

"The Carters and MacGregors are pretty much a 'see each other at weddings and funerals' kind of family. I haven't seen Sam since her mother passed away, and I was quite young then." Cate said, following him in as he pushed the button for the mess level. "What did you do on SG-1?" she asked, much more comfortable to be asking instead of answering questions.

"Resident linguist and archaeologist," he said, flashing her a grin. "And, depending on who you ask, chief troublemaker."

o-o

The lift door opened and the two of them walked out, Cate half following Daniel and half following her instincts to the mess hall. Once there it took them only minutes to select some food. Daniel stuck to his promised pie and coffee, but Cate indulged in a bowl of soup and some fruit to go along with her pie. Their trays laden, Daniel led them to a table in the corner and she didn't know if it was deliberate or an accident that he let her have the chair with its back against the wall.

"How about you?" he asked, as he sipped his coffee. He grimaced and set the cup down, reaching for the sugar. "What brings you aboard the Daedalus?"

"Classified," she quipped, spooning up her soup.

"You know I'll just ask Sam," he threatened.

Cate studied her bowl, suddenly fascinated with the chunks of carrots and potatoes floating in the beef broth. "My brother, Ben," she said. "He's ...aah out here somewhere."

Daniel raised his eyebrows. "SGC? I know we've grown a lot but I wasn't aware of any MIA's."

"Ben wasn't supposed to be with the SGC," she said simply. "We were never that close but...a couple of years ago my husband died. Ben should have been there for me and he wasn't and now he's gone missing, and I want answers. Which is why Mac is here, or at least one reason and...I can't just sit home and wait beside the phone," she finished with a shrug.

"I'm sorry," he said, setting down his fork. "It must have been a bad accident."

She frowned. "What?"

Daniel gaped a second. "Well, I'm kinda making a leap here but...well I couldn't help but see the scars and..." he trailed off, raising his hands. "I've probably stepped on all sorts of toes."

Cate grinned wryly, the man's self-effacing nature cooling her ire. "My husband died in Afghanistan. The, aah, new body art is courtesy of a few North Koreans that took offense at me being in their country." She couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice. It was better than giving into the memories of the fear and pain. Of the hot blood that ran down her hands as she slit the one guard's throat. It was better than admitting that there were a couple of dumpsters in Melbourne that - on a hot day - stank just like the hell hole she'd spent one eternal week caged up in.

She deliberately took a big bite of the soup, using the pain from singing her tongue to banish her memories. "That's another reason to get off world," she said, forcing her voice to be light. "And a part of my life I'd rather the whole ship not know."

Daniel made the turning key gesture in front of his lips. "It sucks being famous," he said, understanding and kindness in his eyes. "Although for us...it was less fleeing Earth than other planets. Teal'c used to keep count but...I understand that there's several dozen planets where our wanted posters grace the equivalent of their post office wall.."

"Are you telling me you have a reputation, Doctor Jackson?" she asked, taking refuge in his teasing.

"We had bounties on our heads and everything. Jack thought it was cool...I kinda found it a pain in the ass."

More people walked into the mess and Cate recognized Doctor Ainsley. Daniel followed her gaze. "They must be done with your dad," he said. Cate looked back at him. "I know Ainsley. He wouldn't be down here if he was worried."

"Yeah," she said, looking helplessly at the tray in front of her.

"Go," Daniel said, flicking his hands towards her. "Check on your dad."

Cate smiled and pushed back from the table. "Thanks," she said, hurrying from the room.

o-o

She nearly jogged the short distance from them mess to the infirmary. It took her only a few minutes to find Mac. Her father was sitting up in a bed, brilliant white patches of gauze covering the wounds he'd received. And IV was taped to the back of his left hand and Cate noticed a certain level of blur in his eyes. Obviously, Doctor Ainsley had either rendered her father totally unconscious or at least heavily sedated him. Which probably accounted for him still being in the infirmary rather than somewhere else.

Two people stood beside the bed, a young man whose bearing screamed 'military' and a dark haired woman whose stance screeched just the opposite. Both looked a bit rough around the edges, their faces smudged with dirt and grime and the man's shirt had a torn sleeve. They both took a bit of a protective stance, the man's arms tensing and the woman turning a bit to place herself firmly between Cate and Mac.

Their low conversation broke off and Mac looked up, blinking as if to clear his vision "Catherine Susanne MacGregor," he growled. "I had hoped I was damned seeing things."

"Yeah good to see you too, dad," she said, nonplussed by his anger. She'd have been more worried had he been silent. The man beside the bed simply raised his eyebrows and relaxed a bit while the woman cocked her hip and put her hands on her waist. "Someone you know, Mac?" she asked.

"You can bloody well say so," Mac growled. "Except it can't be her because she's supposed to be on Earth." He struggled to sit up in the bed. "What the bloody hell are you doing here!" he demanded, raising his voice with every word.

"My job," Cate said, her ire rising. She wasn't in the mood to be dressed down by him, and even less so with spectators.

"Your job, young lady, in on Earth," he shot back.

"My job is wherever Her Majesty sends me," Cate said, her joy at her father's condition fading by the word. She knew he'd be pissed, but she didn't need this.

"Umm, maybe we should be going," the man said.

"Nonsense, Cameron," the woman said. "This is just getting good."

"Vala," he growled.

"There's no way in hell you were sent here!" Mac yelled at Cate, ignoring the other two. "I made damn sure of that!"

"Oh you did, did ya now?" Cate asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Got a direct line to her Majesty do ya?"

"Don't you sass me, lass!" he roared. Behind her Cate could hear silence and she could imagine exactly what it looked like as an infirmary full of people got a ringside seat to a full fledged MacGregor tantrum.

"Don't you talk to me like I'm still a child!" she yelled back. "And don't you give me that crap about Earth being safe, because I can sure as hell tell you that it's not!"

"Umm, maybe both of you should try talking instead of yelling." Cate turned to see Daniel standing a few feet away. He held up his hands. "Sorry, I came to check on the Admiral and couldn't help but overhear." He made a little face. "Of course, I think everyone kinda overheard."

"Brilliant observation there, Jackson," Cameron said.

"You really must give him a break, he's had a bad day, " Vala said, sashaying over to Daniel and twining her arm with his. "And an equally bad night."

"Vala," Daniel groaned, pulling his arm free. "Not now. Admiral, it was nice to meet your daughter and put a face to the name," Daniel said smiling at Mac.

Mac frowned. "I never talked to you about Cate."

"Ouch," Vala quipped, leaning against the bedside table.

"Gee thanks, dad," Cate said, snagging a chair.

"I mean, not beyond…why are you here?" Mac asked again, his tone calmer.

"Ben," Cate said simply.

"Damnit Catherine," Mac groaned.

"Ben?" Cameron asked.

Cate ignored him. "Dad, I'm not going to leave him out here. And you can yell and scream at me all you want, but I'm not going home until I find him."

Mac sighed. "Cate, you have no idea what it's like out here. It's not safe."

"It's also not all bad," Vala said. Everyone turned to look at her. "Ok, so a lot of it can be bad but…there are some not so bad places out there. As a matter of fact, going by my experiences, I've run into more trouble on Earth than off it."

"Yeah, well you're special that way," Cameron quipped. "I think trouble is your middle name."

"Dad, Earth isn't safe," she said. "And you're not going to leave me behind while Mom and Julie and you are out here." She got to her feet. "I'm not going home until I find him. And if you won't let me stay on this ship, I'll just find another."

She spun on her heel and left the room. "Excuse me Admiral I think I'll go talk to her." Daniel said as he hurried after her. Vala gave a small protest but saw the concerned look on her friend's face and conceded.

"I'll go as well."

"Good luck." Mac yelled at the last two retreating backs. Cam recognized a deep worry on the older man's face and placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, do you really think this is doing you any good. I mean in theory you should be dead, _**we all **_should be. But especially you. And what was that sphere thing around you that saved us? Asgard tech?"

"Later Cam, I'll explain later. Help me up will you, I've got a delinquent to sort out." He deliberately put Cam off.

At that very moment, just as Cam placed his arm around Mac's back, Steven Caldwell came around the corner with a reddened face. Concern showed on him like a beacon. "Will, Colonel." He addressed them both. "We've just received a distress call from the Victory."


	12. Chapter 12, by Garrown5th

The LRPV slammed down inside the hangar bay, blowing one of the trans-axles. Crichton slew the vehicle round, until its flank was facing inward as it slid with momentum gained from the landing.

There was only one small problem with that plan; the bay contained almost a full platoon's worth of Ori soldiers, freshly returned from battle.

"Henderson!" Crichton warned. "We're in trouble!"

Julie slithered out of the passenger seat and behind the weapon mount. Crichton and the only member of SG16 who had jumped into the LRPV turned their longs at the Ori troopers and squeezed their triggers, a moment before Henderson depressed the firing studs on the .50 cal.

The sound deafened all those in the hangar bay. Large calibre rounds tore into the Ori troops, their armour proving little protection.

Crichton and Nguyen blasted away in support, concentrating their smaller rounds at single targets until the enemy were put out of action. Even Elena plinked away with her side arm.

Julie kept up the fire, causing damage in the opposite wall as much as slaughtering the Ori troops.

Some of the Ori foot soldiers, intelligently, tried to flank the vehicle whilst the deadly .50 was engaging a larger group. Using the cover of crates and statues to Origin, (no doubt to be planted on converted worlds), they found a superb enfilade on the human combat vehicle. Staff weapons raised, they opened fire and caught the crew of the LRPV unawares.

Nguyen took a staff blast full to the chest, and dropped to the floor with barely a murmur as he died. Crichton turned to engage, desperately trying to reload his empty clip, but knew even as he did that he would be on the receiving end

Only just arriving, the rest of SG16 swept into the hangar bay, lending their small arms in support. With a crack, the closest Ori trooper pitched forward. A second resounding snap dropped another. Stewart looked up to see the grinning dark skinned face of Amy Sutton, her G36 still smoking. He mouthed a silent thank you and returned his attention to the remaining enemy.

The Ori troops couldn't handle the two-pronged attack, nor the heavy fire. Without a Prior to guide and protect them, they were vanquished swiftly, in a all too bloody mess. The noise would have to have been heard throughout the ship. But as yet no support came to them.

Even as the fighting ended, the huge ship began to tremble and quake as the engine pulled it away from the surface of the doomed world.

* * *

The 401's sped for _Victory _and the two Ha'taks. The assault group of four Ori mother ships had arrived, and _Victory_ was already beginning to come around and place herself between the enemy and the fleeing heavy fighters. Her guns were opening fire,

That hadn't stopped the Ori beams. Two 401's had already been blown from the sky, they and their brave crew little more than atomised debris.

Beams seared the vacuum, striking out at the allied vessels. The Ha'taks came in to flank Victory, knowing that they stood no chance in a stand up fight with the toilet bowls.

Then the fighters came. That was the Ori's first mistake. A huge wave of single ships came hurtling into the fight. They gave the human craft cover, as the beam weapons couldn't be fired at the 401's whilst their own fighters swirled about the fight.

The 401 Wing opened fire with their remaining munitions, returning the violence equally. Dozens of the Ori small ships disappeared in brilliant fireballs.

The first Jaffa Death Gliders, human 302's and 307's engaged, and with so much heavy ship-to-ship bombardment under way, there wasn't as much room to manoeuvre as one would expect in space. The scene devolving into a massed fighter brawl, all skill and deftness gone, replaced with fire and turn, fire and turn.

All the while, the small transports were edging closer to home.

Aboard the _Victory_, Suschenko rapped out the commands. The Victory was a powerful ship, able to fight toe to toe with an Ori mother ship,

But four was pushing the luck.

Victory fired another fusillade of plasma beams and launced a dozen missiles, scoring some good hits on the shields of the nearest attacker.

But the Ori weren't exactly standing still. The 'Toilet bowls' were moving around, flanking, and the _Victory_ was starting to take hits, too. Strong as her shields were, they wouldn't stand much more of this.

The Ha'tak on _Victory's_ port took an Ori beam full on. Their upgraded shields held for a moment, but still some of the beams' terrible force made it through.

Explosions filled many of the central decks, but the ship wasn't destroyed, just crippled, in a horrible position. The Ha'tak's power spluttered and died, and, trailing debris and flame, it drifted.

On the _Victory, _the bridge shook, vibrations making some bridge-crew grab on to steady themselves. A panel exploded harmlessly in the back ground.

"That one there. Open fiy-re" Suschenko ordered so his tactical officer. "Concentrate beams,"

"Aye, sir." Adams replied.

The _Victory's_ batteries all opened up at once. The closest toilet bowl, the one that was already damaged, was the target.

The shields on the vessel held for only a moment more, before failing completely. The Asgard beams tore through the ships guts, blowing out the other side, spectacularly.

There was a cheer on the bridge, before the communications officer spoke up.

"Sir, we have a com!" the young women called over the cheers.

"Put it on speakers," Suschenko muttered. "And tell them to make it quick,"

There was a brief pause, then a voice came through the speakers, with a distinctly Australian accent.

"_Colonel, I suggest you get ready to jump out, and now,"_ the disembodied voice said.

"What? Who is zis?"

"Can't _say sir, may be monitored. Can only say, security Ident Cappa-345-60Foxtrot._" The colonel nodded to his comms officer, who instantly ran a check. "You have another five Ori ships, sir, on the dark side of the planet. They came out of hyperspace at distance whilst you were engaged,"

The _Victory_ thundered with impacts again, and Suschenko pondered the man's words. The woman on comms nodded an affirmative, and Suschenko cursed loudly.

"Thanks for the heads up. See you on the far side." The colonel spoke before the comm went dead.

Before the colonel could say anything more, the tactical officer cried out. "Another toilet bowl is rising up from the planet's surface, sir!"

Suschenko swore again, drawing worried looks from the senior bridge staff. Against these numbers, even the _Victory_ was of little use.

"Lieutenant, will those 401's make it in time?"

"No, sir,"

"Squawk a secure rally point, then jump out of here," sweat poured from his face, Dmitri, normally calm, was feeling the imminent threat to his ship and crew now.

"Sir?"

"Beam any off the survivors from the _Telair_, recall the squadrons then jump. We can't fight that many, and we'll lose many more lives if we try. Now, do it!" Suschenko bellowed.

"A...aye, sir," Paul complied.

* * *

Commander Helak looked at the message, partially with disgust, partially with the sad knowledge it was the only thing they could do.

The _Telair _crippled and rifting closer to the enemy. More Ori ships were arriving, and soon he would be unable to help the crew of the _Telair_. His own ship was in desperate trouble, the shields ready to fail, and with fires on several decks.

"Jaffa, plot the route for the rendezvous."

"It will be done," the Jaffa replied with venom, not to Helak, but to the situation they were now in.

"Do not worry, Benth'an, we will avenge our brothers,"

"Of course, Lord,"

* * *

"Sir, forty three from _Telair _safely aboard, port hangar." Leanne Chung the _Victory's_ XO reported.

"Forty three? Is that all? Is Helak amongst them? "

Leanne spoke briefly to a voice on the other end of her coms unit. " Yes he is sir."

"Have him come up immediately then."

In the 401's, the message was patched round. There was some major cursing and complaining done by the pilots, but none the less they obeyed.

In one, the pilot, a young Mexican lieutenant named Jenero, bemoaned how they were meant to use their short-jump hyperspace engines before they were shot from the sky.

Another 401, beside his own ship, was struck several times as the pilot brought it about, the rail gunner unable to sweep all the enemies off their tail. The explosion lit the cockpit of Jenero's 401 for an instant, a fiery epitaph to the men and women inside the other vessel.

Even as he muttered again, and pulled his craft away from the fight, a larger, black shape darted past, putting itself between the fleeing 401's and the Ori. The shape fired weapons, making several confirmed kills. It cam e around again, guarding the fleeing human heavies.

"Man, I'd like to thank that guy," Jenero muttered a moment before engaging his hyperspace drive.

The rest of the 401 force, the survivors, disappeared from view, a moment after the _Victory_ had disengaged.

All but one.

* * *

The SG forces moved through the hangar, policing bodies and weapons. Several wounded enemy took their lives with their wrist mounted blasters, or tried to take some SG personnel with them, rather than receive medical aid. Anne went to help those injured SG personnel, there was not much she could do though without her kit, one of SG16 now wore a part of her jacket sleeve as a memento.

Crichton tried to take a few deep breaths, and realised he'd just had a major adrenaline hit. He was shaking, and his breathing was ragged.

The young captain ejected his magazine, and only noticed, as he went to replace it, that he had none left. Stewart chuckled nervously. If not for Amy Sutton, he would have been so much meat.

None of this, however, eased his anger, the mad, useless hate that had filled him when his team lay dead and injured around him. He wanted payback, and so far, he hadn't had any. The captain stomped off to find someone with G36 clips, feeling like the most dangerous man in the galaxy.

"Still think you didn't need us?" Baker muttered. Anne whipped round and glared at him.

"What was that, captain?"

"Still think you didn't need us, ma'am?" Baker said plainly. Anne couldn't stop a smile.

"True enough, captain. Good thing you disobeyed orders and followed me,"

Kyle grinned slightly, before turning and calling for everyone to gather round. They were aboard; the question was, now what?

Amy stood there, beaming. The AW.50 in it's pack laying before her feet, her rifle still hot, at the ready, she couldn't help but think how proud the Koori nation would be of her, but this was not the time for self pride, there was still a job to do. "Ma'am, we did actually follow orders…sort of." She said meekly. Anne simply frowned a little but let it pass.

* * *

Macara stared out the porthole of the 401. The Ori mother ship was rising beside them, making for the outer atmosphere. His pilot was, for the moment, keeping pace.

"Not detecting any shields or sensors working presently, sir," the pilot told the lieutenant-colonel.

"Keep close below her. I don't want someone lookin' out the damned window and seeing us. Real tight, captain."

"Aye, sir."

The tiny ship flew in closer, just as the two vessels breached atmo. The space battle was just ending, and Macara saw the Victory and the other 401's dash away. And he saw the growing Ori fleet.

"We may be in trouble," he breathed.

"Sir!" the pilot said in a panic. "Sir, the Ori ship just rose shields!"

"Get us the hell away from it, then!"

"I can't, colonel. We are _in_ the shield envelope! I'm reading power surge in their engines. I think they're going to hyper drive!"

"Shit! We really are in trouble. Can you get the clamp on their hull? If you don't we are dead,"

"I'll try, sir. I don't know if they'll hold the strain, but I'll try,"

Macara prayed it would work, as he could see the first Ori ships going to hyperspace already.

* * *

So far, they had lucked out. No one had missed the dead Ori soldiers and come looking for them. And no one seemed to be patrolling the vast ship.

Baker, Henderson, Ovcharenko and Crichton stood in conversation with Anne. Sergeant Fraser stood with them, a couple of steps back.

The doctor was not at all keen on the idea of going exploring with the others. Baker was not about to let the Admiral's wife wander off alone in an Ori ship.

None of the officer's knew that Anne had ulterior motives. Or, rather, Inarin did.

As soon as the doctor had come aboard, she had sensed them. She knew they were here.

Three descended Ori.

"We have four SAS, three Marines and two pilots, . We can't exactly take this ship," Anne said candidly.

"I count one marine," Crichton muttered childishly.

"Oh, be quiet," Lilly hissed back, only partly serious. Crichton almost cracked a smile. Julie thumped him hard.

"What, limey, you don't think women count as Marines?" She said with practised sarcasm.

"Shut it, people," Baker snapped. Despite Anne's senior rank, he was the ranking combat officer, and he was SF. This was his briefing and his call.

Crichton remembered he was a Royal Marine officer for a moment, and added something helpful to the conversation. "We have half a dozen G36's, and your sniper's rifle, and a side arm each some flash bangs and six grenades. Also, there is a Minim on the LRPV with an egress kit."

"And only a magazine each," added. "We couldn't survive a major fight."

Baker mused for a moment. "What about the LRPV? Any supplies in it?"

"We have rations, British issue, thank God, but no ammo or additional weapons," Julie replied. Like most US troops, she would rather have British rations than MREs any day of the week.

"Could we hole up here until this thing lands again?" Ovcharenko asked. She knew the answer though. Elena had studied what they knew of the Ori ships and how big they were and how many they could carry. The hangar might provide a better defensive position she thought, unless they could space us. She brushed those dark musings aside.

Anne shook her head. "We have no guarantee it will land at all,"

"Well, we can't just stay here." Crichton spat. His anger had not abated.

"No, we can't. Ma'am, the captain is right. We need to move, and soon. Eventually someone will come looking. Even if we can't take the ship, we need to take the bridge, and head somewhere safe." Baker said.

Anne gritted her teeth, but knew the SAS officer also had a damned good point.

"Fine. We shall move on the bridge. Take control," Anne began to say. Before she got any further, the Anne closed her eyes and slumped to the floor as if sleep had suddenly overtaken her.

"Anne? Anne?" Julie cried, dropping to her side.

_Inarin stood in the grey surrounds mists rose about her feet. There was nothing, just a soft grey, blurring off into the distance._

_Or was it simply an all grey room, wreathed in mist? She'd been here before, many times over the ages. it was not the Ori ship she knew that._

_It was a state she knew very well. This was where she came to talk, to argue, to love and live with Agathon whenever their wakeful bodies where not together. She had been summoned, not the first time, but it was unusual, normally it was her doing, not his. Agathon had limited abilities in that regard._

_And, yet, there he was._

_Features frozen in handsome maturity for all eternity, his aged but regal figure was shrouded in fine grey robes. Normally they would find each other in the clothes they wore, but not this time, this was a meeting, there was another presence here._

"_My lord," she curtsied and gave a girlish giggle. Agathon hated those old traditions. He smiled, and gave a stiff bow and a wink._

_After a small smile in return from Inarin they embraced. She noticed Agathon flinch, a psychosomatic reaction to the wound his conscious body carried._

"_Why have you summoned me, this is not like you?" Inarin asked, looking up into Agathon's steel blue __eyes. "What is wrong?"_

"_My body was badly injured again as I fought with one of them. I am recovering well, for the moment. But I needed to tell you. They are powerful, Inarin. More powerful than we believed. And I think there may be three of them with you."_

_Inarin's eyes had widened with worry for her soul mate, but tightened at the corners when he mentioned the Descended Ones._

"_I know. I felt them when we landed upon their outpost .Yet are they truly that dangerous, we have had their measure before?"_

"_Not like this. You cannot handle these three alone," Agathon shook his head. "I know you are strong, stronger even than I, I often believe. But you need help."_

"_Apparently, that's where I come in," a gruff voice, with a sing-song lilt, announced._

_Inarin turned and showed utter surprise to see Lorcan appear through the grey mists. The surprise turned to joy at seeing the Celtic Lord. She went and embraced him also, a gesture of the close friendship the three shared._

"_It has been too long, Lord Lorcan," she replied to the tall warrior. It seemed strange to see him in the fine robes the likes of which Agathon's spectre rarely appeared in. So this was a joint summoning. Not all Agathon's doing._

"_It has, lass, it has. Since the Fallen One's, I believe. But that was another age, wasn't it, the Nephilm, time has come full circle with their undoing. In fact, I thought I was to sleep until it __was Macara's time to advance in knowledge. He hasnae come as far as the MacGregor's I'm afraid,"_

"_Ages come and go Lorcan, this is not our first time, nor will it be the last. We have lived this cycle before, our enemies may change, but our fates do not. We are in another era, another time in Earth's history, but the same pattern. The wheel turns again." Inarin spoke solemnly._

"_There is a problem, old friend. Inarin is about to face down our old kin, the Ori in the flesh, beings now that could give the Nephilm pause for thought. Ori, descended from their realm like us. She cannot do this alone old friend. Will you help her?" Agathon asked, knowing full well what the answer would be._

"_Aye, Lord, of course. But Nathan, where is he? No, wait, a moment. Let's see if I can still do this,"_

_Lorcan's brow furrowed. A moment later, his revenant disappeared._

_It took only heartbeats, at least, the soul's memory of heartbeats, for him to return._

"_He is on a small ship, and from what I can tell, attached to a larger one." The Celtic Warrior muttered. "One that took off from a planet, according to his memories,"_

"_The ship you are on, Inarin?"_

"_I don't know. I didn't feel anything, but if Lord Lorcan has slumbered, then..."_

_Agathon thought on this. "Inarin try and contact Macara. If he is nearby, then he can join you on your mission, and therefore Lorcan can be present,"_

_She nodded, moving close to Agathon. He put his arms around her and squeezed. Lorcan turned his view away from them, his sense of propriety not left him yet._

"_Good Luck," Agathon whispered. Inarin smiled back at him. "Look after her," he said to Lorcan, a hint of a growl in his voice._

"_With my very soul, Lord," Lorcan grinned fiercely. _

_The Ancient Lord nodded to his beloved, and the whiteness faded to black._

Anne blinked, looking at the faces starring worriedly back.

"H...how long have I been out...?" she managed to gasp out the question.

"About twenty seconds," Julie replied. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Honestly, I'm fine," Anne stood to her full height, brushing off the SASR men who tried to help her up. She could let them know who they were really with, not now.

"Are you sure?" Baker asked, knowing that he couldn't worry about Anne potentially falling asleep every two minutes as he tried to take this ship.

"If Captain MacGregor says she's fine, she's fine," Henderson replied for her. Anne smiled at her son's betrothed. He had made a damned fine choice.

"Get me a radio," Anne asked.

"Ma'am?" Fraser looked at her quizzically, never the less passing his mic over.

"Thank you sergeant." She said, before changing the frequency to the Gate Alliance Emergency frequency. "Colonel Macara, come in. Can you hear me?"

There was nothing. Baker frowned, and Julie tried to ask what was Anne was thinking, before a brief, distorted crackle came back.

"_This is lieute*crackle*onel Macara. Who is this?_"

"Captain Doctor MacGregor. Colonel, are you attached to the ship that just left P5X 449."

There was another pause. Anne realised she hadn't used any code or crypt, but the emergency channel was only know to SG personnel, and it was highly unlikely anyone would stumble on it.

"_You're luc*crackle*ky I recognise the voice, ma'am. *crackle*shouldn't admit anything on a radio. We may be, we may not._"

"Stand by, colonel. Captain, can we control the hangar bay doors from here?"

Baker looked to Sergeant Fraser who had a small working knowledge of Ancient systems after doing his course at the Gamma site. He nodded.

"I've been looking at the controls for a while, to see if I can get us into locked areas. I should be able to. I can't guarantee I can erect force fields, so you may not want anyone in here if I have to open those bay doors. But I can let them in safely at least."

"Very good. What do you have planned, ma'am?" Baker addressed Anne again.

"When we drop out of..." she began. There was a brief lurch as the ship transitioned to normal space. "Ah, timing. Brilliant. We need to get the colonel and his troops in here, Captain. It will...improve our chance of taking the ship," Anne finished, only partially truthful.

Baker didn't notice. He liked the idea.

"Very good, ma'am. Right, let's get to it! Move everyone out into the corridors, captains," he spoke to his Marines and the Russian pilot.

Anne smiled slightly. She was about to have a reckoning. And she wouldn't be alone.

* * *

Ishta's Ha'tak dropped out of hyperspace above P5X 449. As it did, the Free Jaffa leader stood, shock on her face.

"Scan the area! Find the ships we were to meet here!" she demanded.

"Yes, milady," the Jaffa on the scanners said hurriedly, punching some keys. He spoke up only moments later. "The debris, milady. Our scans show it to be from multiple vessels. And the burning wreck is the _Telair_," the Jaffa confirmed Ishta's fears.

Ishta cursed loudly, in anger. "And the other debris?"

"Tau'ri and Ori. There has been a large explosion on the planet, with a huge area flattened. It seems they have been defeated and destroyed, milady."

Ishta swore in Jaffa again. "Take us from this place. We must let the SGC know of this,"

"It will be done, m'lady,"

* * *

The crew of the small blackened ship watched as the Ori craft began making the jump into an opened hyper-window, there was little they could do now. The Tauri ship had managed to flee to safety, all the could do now was follow. Some short time later they shot into an area seemingly unfamiliar to all but one of the crew. A huge devise hung in the vastness not far from where the Ori ships had paused.

"What the hell is that?" The young bearded pilot asked in dismay.

The only member of the crew who knew, Krael, once a Jaffa in Ba'al's service spoke up. "It's a cursed Ori device, your people call it a Super Gate, we're are near one of my former master's hidden worlds, look there." He pointed to the planet not far below. "No one comes here, it is not on the gate system, he hid it well, none know of it's existence."

The pilot examined the monstrous device. "Well these guys sure do, hang on…."

The gate burst into life, the Ori ships began to move. "It looks as if one of our guys has the same idea…shit he's just docked into that last ship. Christ, somethings very wrong here..ok guys we're going through that." He nodded toward the enormous blue-white puddle and pushed the power controls forward. There was no turning back now.


	13. Chapter 13, by Akamaimom

**Reconciliation**

"So, how long will it take you to tear these stitches?"

"Have faith, Doctor." The Admiral grimaced as he adjusted his clothing. "As much as I love being in hospital, I don't want to see you again anytime soon. No offense intended."

"None taken." The physician fiddled with some papers on his clipboard. "Just remember to go talk to Caldwell. He's been patient up until now, but—"

"I know." Will eased himself off the bed. "Are they still outside?"

At the doctor's nod, Will made his way towards the infirmary door, exiting to find Mitchell and Teal'c waiting for him in the hall.

"Feeling better, Admiral?" Cam fell into step beside him, while Teal'c took up the rear.

"A bit." Will glanced at the Colonel. "Where's Sam?"

"Decoding something for Caldwell." Cam led them through a set of doors, and then another, before turning a wide corner that angled into the control area. "She's not too happy."

As they entered the bridge, Will could feel the tension before he saw it. Tight bodies—stiff statures. Lines on Caldwell's face that hadn't been there before. The Admiral made his way towards where the younger man stood speaking with Sarah Connolly. Their manner—their hushed, stilted tones, told him more than their words would. He wasn't going to like what they had to tell him.

And in the distance beyond the bridge windows, he saw the distinct shape of a strange new ship filling the entire field of vision beyond _Daedalus's_ bow.

He grimaced, then stopped next to Caldwell. "What's going on Steven?"

"It's the Victory, Admiral. The mission was a disaster, I've contacted the SGC and General O'Neill wants us to return ASAP. And we've managed to royally peeve the IOA, too."

"That's the last thing we need now. What exactly has Suschenko sent us? Anything other than _'disaster'._" Just the sight of the Ancient ship floating just beyond his reach was enough to lower his mood to match the rest of the room's.

"No sir." He looked away, loathe to meet the Admiral's eye. "He also mentioned some missing personnel."

A subtle shift behind him had Will turning to find his niece standing to his left. She placed a gentle hand on his arm and gave a slight squeeze.

"Sir, I think we should withdraw for the moment. I know what you're thinking and you're right. If we turn that ship over to the IOA now, it won't see the light of day for years." She pressed her lips together briefly before continuing. "I took the liberty of telling Sarah and Steven that for now, the ship is inactive and we can't get it going again. Sarah has told me it's probably eighty percent complete, weapons and most systems are active, with only a few interior areas unfinished."

Despite the situation, Will found himself grinning. "Sam, you're saying we lie to them?"

"Well, yeah sort of. Unless you're going to tell on us."

He made a rough sound in the back of his throat. "No one likes a tattle-tale. Is there a plan to this—or are we just winging it?"

Sarah glanced at Caldwell, and then at Will. "I'll stay with the ship, sir, with a small contingent until we can work something out. The Victory should be with us soon in this vector and someone will need to make sure Suschenko knows as well. He'll listen to me sir."

"Well, aren't you all a nest of conspirators?" Will clasped his hands, looking at each of the officers in turn. "Very well then."

He turned towards Calwell. "Steven, set a course for home. In the meantime I have a child to straighten out. Sam, you want to come?"

"Ooh—that sounds like fun." Her eyes brightened unnaturally, her face abnormally cheery. "But I need to go over some things with Captain Hailey."

Will shook his head in mock disappointment. "You sure? You know you love a good fight."

But Carter flashed him one of her signature smiles before leaning closer and softly adding, "I'll catch up with you both later, Uncle Will."

* * *

The knock was almost lost within the omnipresent drone of the ship's engines. Frowning, Cate looked up and over at the door, glaring at the grey panel until she heard the noise again.

Small, rhythmic taps—no more than a single knuckle rapping against the institutionalized make of the cabin's door. And even though the gesture was seemingly meek—she knew who it was.

Stubbornly, she resituated herself on her bunk, drawing her knees closer to her chest. Heels digging into the thin mattress of her bed, she closed her eyes and concentrated, hoping against hope that her silence, coupled with the pride of the person on the other side of her door, would force her visitor to leave.

She heard a stilted mutter, and then feet shifting heavily on the other side of the door. A larger thud—his forehead against the partition on the other side? Cate glanced back over—as if she could see through the walls and see what he was doing.

It was almost a relief when her eyes met nothing but stark gray. It was easier to deal with her father when she couldn't see him.

"Cate." His voice sounded slightly off somehow—as if his throat were tight, his breath short. His pain bled through the words, the tone, his normally strident cadence somewhat stilted. "Cate, we need to talk."

She rolled her eyes. Usually, when he said that, it meant that he needed to talk, and she needed to listen. Conversing wasn't something that came easily to men like Mac—powerful men—strong men. For years, the Admiral's wife had tried to get him to temper his manner with his daughter—and for years, she had failed. It wasn't the speaking part of communicating that Mac struggled with. It was the listening part.

A fact that blared into evidence with his words. "Cate. Let me in." Notably _not_ a request. It was an order.

She groaned and ran an exasperated hand through her hair. "Why should I?"

The pause was longer this time, and when his voice finally made its way through the partition, it sounded different—as if he were forcing himself into a box. "Cate. Please."

She counted to thirty. Then ten more. Finally, with a rough exhale, Cate stood and crossed to the door, opening it with a practiced swipe of her hand.

Her father stood a few feet from the entrance, obviously about to leave. As the door slid wide, he turned to face her, his face haggard and worn.

For a moment they just stared at each other—their stances, their expressions similar—indicative more than colouring or facial features that they did, indeed, share the same genes. And Cate felt stricken by how old her father suddenly appeared—and more human than she'd ever seen him before. More fragile. Breakable.

And it occurred to her for the first time in her life that the old man was just that—aging. Of course, being practically killed earlier couldn't have helped matters. Deep lines in his face showed worry, doubt, and something indefinable for a man such as Mac—something beyond fear—something worse.

Pain.

Physical? Mental? She watched as he rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin, his broad cheek.

_Spiritual_?

"We need to talk about this, Cate."

"Dad, I—"

They'd spoken at the same time. Ruefully, one side of Cate's mouth twitched upwards, and she breathed deeply before ceding the conversation over to her father with a seemingly nonchalant wave of a flattened palm.

"You don't know what it's like out here." He stood back a step or two from the door, balanced perfectly on his feet. Feet apart, arms folded across his chest, shoulders straight, he looked more ready for battle than for reconciliation. Even so, he seemed nervous. He rocked backwards on his heels briefly before continuing. "You don't know the dangers."

"As opposed to what? Dodging Guidance Bureau troops moving out of Pyongyang?" At the Admiral's frown, she continued. "I assure you—the universe has nothing on stoic North Koreans and their ability to seriously crimp my style."

Mac snorted, his attempt at not rolling his eyes a brilliant failure. "You didn't belong there, either."

"You've said all this before, Dad." Cate leaned against the door frame, bracing one hand on her hip. "Believe me when I tell you that I've done quite an extensive risk and benefit analysis. I'm rather well educated, you know."

"How can you have taken them into consideration when you don't know what they are?" He shifted, gesturing tightly with one hand. "You have no idea what's out there."

"I wouldn't be here if I hadn't done my homework."

"Homework? You can't study up on these situations. Especially not when you're more used to other pursuits. This war isn't like Calculus or Home Economics."

Cate's jaw tightened. With a tense shake of her head, she narrowed her eyes. "So, now you're doubting not only my efficacy in my job, but also my research skills?"

"I'm not doubting anything."

"Oh please, Dad." She straightened, snorting with a derision she was only mildly surprised that she actually felt. "That's what you do best."

"Protect you from yourself?" His arms dropped to his sides, and he glared at her. "That sounds about right. _Someone_ needs to."

"No. Doubting." She shook her head more violently, this time. "That's what I meant. What you do best is doubt me."

Footsteps echoed in the close quarters of the hallway. Not in unison—a trio of soldiers emerged around a corner and then headed towards Mac, muttering their "excuse me, Sirs" as they passed him and wended their way through the gray corridor. Mac's eyes drifted shut, and his lips practically disappeared.

Cate waited until their passage was complete before answering her father.

"You're not trying to protect me." She leaned back against the frame, her shoulder landing painfully against a sharp edge. "You're trying to prove how unable I am. You're trying to prove yourself better. As usual."

"Cate."

"Listen. If this is all you came here for, then forget it." Cate pushed away from the wall and reached her hand towards the door controls. "I've already told you that I'm not leaving."

"Your mother—"

"Would support me, and you know it."

To Cate's surprise, her father didn't offer a rebuttal or reply. He simply froze, the only movement he made being a small twitch in the muscle at his temple.

"I hope you know that she would do what I'm doing." All of a sudden, her throat had closed up, and Cate found it hard to push the words past the tightness there. "If her husband were lost somewhere in the universe. And that Mom wouldn't rest until she'd found him. "

Mac's face fell, and he dropped his gaze towards the floor, to where his boots gleamed ebony against the bland, serviceable flooring of the ship. His fingers tensed on his waist as he drew a deep breath into the epic cavern of his chest. "She wouldn't if I'd asked her not to."

"And if you had no choice? If she were certain that you were being held against your will?"

The Admiral frowned, his brows hunching together over thin eyes. "I understand that you're trying to find Ben, we are as well—"

"_Brother,_ Dad. He's my brother, your son."

"And I know that. And I know that you're worried about him."

"I am."

"But you don't belong here." He raised his head enough to look her in the eye. "And you know it."

Heat burned at the back of her eyelids, and Cate swallowed a moan. "Why not? Because I'm not quite so military anymore? Or because I'm your daughter and not your son?"

"Catie."

She shook her head. "The thing is that you think you know me. But you don't. And you've never bothered to figure me out. Even when I was a kid, you didn't understand me." Her fingers teased at the "close" button on the control panel. "So I'll help you out. I'm _you_, Dad. Stubborn and officious and determined. And I'm not going anywhere near home until I can take my brother—my _family_—back there with me."

"Damn it, Cate."

"Damn it, Dad."

When he didn't say anything else, Cate looked away, down towards his feet, planted there in the hall like so many immovable trees. Symbolic? Sure. Of something that Cate didn't really want to explore. She closed her eyes for a breath, then felt her body sag a little. So tired—exhausted. So done.

"Whatever, Dad. Just go." She pressed the button, and moved backwards as the door began its slide home.

"Cate!" A sudden rush of movement blurred on the other side of the door, and the Admiral's hand appeared in the narrowing opening, his fingers curling around the moving panel. Like a lift door, the panel jerked backwards to reveal Mac standing close—brooding. "Please don't."

"Why shouldn't I? You're not listening to what I'm saying."

"The same could be said the other way, too."

"That's where you're wrong, Dad." Cate stepped backwards, lifting a hand to brush the hair back off her forehead. "I listen to what you say. I just don't happen to agree with it at the moment."

He stood in the doorway, awkward, slightly stooped to accommodate the frame. His normally implacable face hosted a myriad of emotions has he gazed at his daughter, until finally he lowered chin slightly and breathed deeply. Voice tight—more a growl than a tone, he gritted out his words. "You're right."

Cate had seen lightning once—jolting bright and brilliant out of a cloudless sky. She'd been at school at the time—year ten, as she remembered it, and her Phys Ed class had been playing field hockey. The lightning had hit a decent distance away, licking in perfect flame at a barren hill behind the school grounds. All activity on the field had stalled, with those having witnessed the bolt turning complete circles while looking heavenwards in an attempt to place the origination point. But there had been nothing obvious—merely blue, perfect skies and endless sunshine and absolutely no hint as to where the jolt had come from. It had been an aberration—an anomaly—a cosmic mistake.

Lightning from the blue.

And now, in a massive cruiser light years from home, Cate felt the same stunned wonder as she had all those years ago. She felt her mouth gape open and forced herself to clamp her lips shut.

There it was. The acknowledgement she'd been seeking.

But still, she couldn't keep herself from asking. "I'm what?"

"Right. What you said about your mother." His shoulders lifted slightly. "You're spot on. She'd leave no stone unturned."

Cate nodded, her jaw tensing as she waited.

"And she'd come to find me—or you—no matter what. And I would expect no less of her." The Admiral scowled. "Or of you."

And her anger dissipated just a bit—just enough for her to be able to look at the man sandwiched in the door frame and see him as something more than the overbearing tyrant she'd come to tolerate. But to see him as a man—a man who was worried about his child, about his wife, about his planet. A man who had more resting on his sizable shoulders than most men ever dreamed of.

And despite herself, a man she still loved with an intensity that unnerved her.

"Come on in, Dad." Cate stepped aside, offering no more than that in the way of invitations. "Before the door decides to close again."

He entered and stood full in the center of the room, sparing a single look behind him as the door slid shut. His full focus then rested on his daughter's rumpled bunk, and the shoes she'd kicked off on the serviceable woolen blanket.

For a full minute, they stood in silence, until Cate rounded the Admiral and sat herself down on the bed, perching on the edge, feet flat on the floor. Looking up at her father, she tilted her head to one side. "You were saying?"

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "You're going to make me repeat it? You _are_ your mother's daughter."

"I'm more my father's daughter."

And what was that light that crossed his expression? Pride? Resignation? Whatever—Mac quelled it before answering. "That you are."

"Then why can't you accept my choices?"

His eyes turned brilliant—before he closed the lids and shuttered himself again. "Cate—I wanted more for you."

"More than what?"

"More than this. Danger and death and destruction."

Cate's lips curved. "So, if I eliminate the letter 'd' from my alphabet, we should be good to go?"

"Catherine—"

She held up a hand. "I'm sorry. I know what you mean. You wanted a normal life for me. Little house in the country and a dog named Jingles. Three rugrats and a stationwagon—that kind of thing?"

His nod seemed benign. "Something like that."

"And instead you have a spy who seems hell-bent on finding trouble, after a not so glorious short Air Force career."

"That, too."

"It's not going to change." She looked at him deliberately, almost daring him to meet her eye. "_I'm_ not going to change."

And then he did meet her gaze—full on—intense. His eyes bored beyond her tough exterior and settled somewhere near her heart. "I know that. It just makes a father think that he's lost something—to know that his daughter doesn't need him anymore."

And that, Cate knew, was as close to an admission as she was likely to get. The wall she'd spent the last few years of her life erecting wrenched aside, beginning to crumble. She looked down at her hands—folded in her lap, and further down at where her stockinged feet seemed too white against the floor. Looked down to try and disguise the smile that stole across her features.

"And you can stop trying to hide your face, missy." His big feet shuffled closer to her. "I may have been worked over recently, but it didn't render me stupid."

Looking up, Cate regarded her father steadily. "So—you're okay with me being here?"

"No." He shrugged, then winced. "But that doesn't seem to matter all that much, now, does it?"

"Not really." Cate stood. "But it would be nice to be able to be on the same ship without having to check around every corner before I turn it."

Mac smiled, this time. "Not that you'd be afraid of me."

"Nope—really more like annoyed."

Suddenly, Cate found herself enveloped by her father's strong arms, pulled tightly against his chest, her face pressed into his collarbone. And it was as if she were a child again—that embrace felt natural, and right—like cool water after a walk in the desert. She wound her arms around his neck, stretching up on tip-toe to fit her cheek against his.

Behind them, another knock sounded on the door. Insistent, purposeful, the harsh rapping was accompanied by a voice. "Catherine! Are you still in there?"

_Vala_. Cate's grip slid a bit, and she let a tiny groan escape. "She and I were planning on eating together."

But the Admiral merely strengthened the embrace. "I don't want to lose you, Catie."

"I know, Dad." Her voice low, she pulled away just far enough to meet his eyes. "I don't want to lose you, either. But I have to do this. I have to find him."

And finally, he nodded. The Admiral raised a hand to cup her chin. "You'll be careful."

She grinned then—self effacing, sly. "Don't worry." Patting his arm, she stepped around him and towards the door, pressing the control and sending the panel sliding wide. And as Vala's smiling, bright face greeted her, she turned her head towards her dad. "I'm like you, remember?"

To which he replied, cocking one brow high. "That's what I'm worried about."


End file.
